Convergence
by Rasengan22
Summary: Everything that rises must converge. Scifi.
1. Chapter 1

_Written for tablechan at her request_

* * *

><p>The <em>Accipiter<em>'s cockpit should've been the one place on this spacecraft where Sasuke could feel secure in his isolation. The rest of the crew had the entire ship to do with as they pleased so long as they stayed out of his face and didn't start any more fires in the mess hall. Unfortunately for him, today was an infamous day of mutiny. The com-link buzzed as a woman's screeching nearly made him go deaf in his left ear.

"Sasuke! I know you're in there! If you're not going to come out and listen to our demands, then, then... Well, I won't be held responsible for what happens!"

"Karin," Sasuke said in a low-level voice, "I don't _care _what you do. You're all replaceable."

Karin laughed hysterically in the earpiece. "Replaceable? Are you kidding? _No one _in this solar system or the next will be willing to work with you! You have the worst attitude of all the pilots in the entire Black Fleet - "

"What part of _I don't care _do you not understand?"

Karin huffed and stammered, and as she launched into another tirade, Sasuke cut the communications link. Then someone threw something heavy against the cockpit door, but short of a compact nuclear device, no one was getting inside here.

This ship was particularly sturdy on its own. He'd won it off of a smuggler in a card game and done all the new mods and specifications himself. It ran ten times faster and was more agile than most of the recent models the Syndicate's manufacturing contractors were busy mass producing. Ones constructed with a recently discovered alloy that they claimed made a ship more durable for defense purposes, but in truth, the Syndicate would use and exploit cheap alien labor to harvest the alloy and then sell it for an inflated price to pay for their ever-growing military. Not to mention that buying ships built with government registered metal meant it was easier for them to track you.

When another loud noise rocked the outside corridor, Sasuke switched on the videofeed at the exact same time as the computer started to alert him one of the bay's docking gates was opening. The bay gate adjacent to the one and only escape pod he had - _oh fuck_!

Sasuke jumped out of the pilot seat and pulled the latch for the autopilot. He barked orders at the computer as he rushed from the cockpit, grabbing his blaster holster on the way. He cursed as he yanked open a hatch that led to a ladder connecting the pit to the living deck, which was where all the cabins were located. As he ran by them, the doors had been left ajar, and the simple furnishings thrown about the rooms. There was a contained fire in the disposal unit of one cabin (Juugo's), but the system had already turned on the sprinkler. Sasuke sprinted down the corridor and through the mess hall to get to another stairwell. The soles of his boots clanked heavily on the metal steps as he took to them four at a time. When he came face to face with the door that led to the docking bay, it refused to budge even after he jammed in the code to override it.

"Fucking Suigetsu," Sasuke growled.

He'd hired Suigetsu to be his electronics expert. Suigetsu used to work for the Syndicate, but had been arrested after hacking into an elite general's personal database and attempting to blackmail him after finding compromising photographs of he and a young alien boy.

So, by the time Sasuke would be able to circumvent the control limits his mechanic had placed on the security system, he was going to be out one worthless crew _and _his only fucking pod!

With his fingers flying over the databoard, it was ten minutes before he managed to get the system to override Suigetsu's changes by using a default version of voice recognition (one of Sasuke's more brilliant modifications that came out of his constant paranoia about being fucked over). Not that there was anything surprising about being paranoid when criminals surrounded themselves with other criminals. Although Sasuke didn't consider himself a criminal because, to date, he'd never been caught by the Syndicate's military unit - the Enforcers. His lack of a record meant that he could do business in areas a lot of other smugglers couldn't. Meaning, Sasuke was a rather popular choice amongst the merchants who sought out Black Fleet pilots to carry out their illegal smuggling.

Finally, the entrance doors to the bay began to wedge apart. But then half way through opening, they stalled. Sasuke gave the lower part a brutal kick, and it began to separate again. However, before he had a chance to run inside, there was a large blast of flames as the pod's engines ignited. The small ship hovered above the launch pad for mere seconds before quickly flying out through the docking gate. Equipment started getting sucked out into space. Sasuke reached around the corner to slam on the gravity button. All of the items that had been on their way out of the ship stopped mid-air and fell to the floor. The oxygen levels returned to normal, and the docking gate proceeded to close as all the computerized warning alerts raged on. Two of the robotic droids scurried back and forth, not knowing what to do.

Sasuke sunk to the floor and covered his face with his hands. He considered going after them. He could overtake them if he really wanted to, but something was making it impossible for him to move from this spot.

"Would you shut the hell up?" he yelled at the computer system.

"Voice not recognized. Voice not recognized. Voice not recognized."

"For fuck's sake!" Sasuke shouted as he got to his feet, ripped open the control panel, and pulled out several of the wires. The voice system shut down, but the lights continued their incessant blinking.

Again, he sank to the floor and brought his knees to his chest. The crew he could live without, but the fact that they stole his only pod... what the fuck was he going to do? That would take a half a year of dangerous, highly-ranked missions before he'd be able to afford a replacement. Unless he stole one, but without a crew, that was near impossible. There was a chance he could sneak into a Syndicate impound lot and hotwire one of their confiscated pods, but that sort of plan had a low chance of succeeding, and he didn't want to risk a record.

"Fuck!" He hit his head against the wall and clenched his fists.

Sasuke wasn't a religious man, but he swore on all things holy that if he were ever to see Karin, Suigetsu or Juugo again, he would make them regret the day they'd betrayed him. He'd have to spend a good week fixing the changes Suigetsu had made to the security system as well as all the superficial damage done to the main decks and the corridors.

At least one important lesson had come from all of this - Sasuke, as he'd always believed since a young boy - was better off working alone.

* * *

><p>Three days had gone by since that moronic crew of his mutinied. Sasuke lay on his back in a narrow space above the engine room, most of his upper body covered in a thin film of grease. For whatever reason, the sensors for the propulsion system had been unbalanced since yesterday, and he wasn't sure if that had anything to do with a sabotage attempt by Suigetsu or more to do with the Accipiter's age. For the most part, it had been a loyal craft - stubborn at first, but it had gotten him out of a fair amount of scrapes. He'd already done a lot of modifications to the SRB42 sublight engines, stealing and collecting parts when they'd come across floating trash sites. It was expensive to dispose of a non-working craft through legal means, so there were a lot of people who would tow their ships out a distance and leave them floating like garbage. Garbage that, for a space pirate, was extremely valuable as scrap metal and spare parts.<p>

"_Shit_!"

Sparks sprayed as Sasuke yanked his hand from the tangle of wires after receiving a jolt that left his fingers and toes tingling. He waved his hand in front of his face. The beds of his nails were black. There was some threading in the wires connected to the thermal protection system, and he was pretty sure that _had_he been abusing the hyperdrive as of late, he would've blown an engine by now. Eventually, he would need to find a proper mechanic, but until then he was optimistic about being able to patch up the wiring himself. Once he was finished, Sasuke screwed the insulation plate back into place and started stuffing his tools into the multiple pockets of his pants. He had just enough room to flip onto his stomach and crawl out while the engines hummed underneath.

"That's a good sound," he murmured as he went down the ladder into the engine room. It had been three days he'd gone without human contact, so he'd taken up talking to the ship as a habit. But it _was_a good sound. The engines were ones he'd built practically from scratch. He loved the gentle pulsing noise they made. Like a heartbeat.

Sasuke returned to his quarters. The cabin was clean, the bed made up military-style - a habit from having grown up in a strict household. In the shower, the scalding water did wonders for his aching muscles. He must've stood under the spray for 30 minutes. As he toweled his hair, he switched on the main computer at his desk. Voice command was off since there were still glitches with the voice recognition, so he had to do everything manually. He scanned the autopilot's navigation route and noticed an interesting cluster of debris. Sasuke touched the group of dots moving across the screen and wondered if it might be a good opportunity to scavenge for some parts. It could end up being useless junk, but, then again, it might save him a costly trip to the maintenance station. His fingers worked the databoard as he ordered the sensor droids to bring back anything of interest, and even if they only found scrap metal, maybe he could sell it at a market in the Byyrus system.

There was no real reason to keep a constant monitor on such a routine exercise, so Sasuke pulled back the covers and got into bed. He hadn't slept more than 10 hours over the last three days. He shivered. The temperature had decreased by at least a few grades of Celsius ever since he'd put life support on minimum to conserve fuel. Sasuke closed his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts were of his father.

* * *

><p>It felt like he'd been unconscious for days, not hours. The computer had awoken him with an alert that the droids had finished scanning and collecting the mass of floating debris. He planned to sort through it just as soon as he had something to eat. Shirtless, he stood in the mess hall, stirring a can of baked beans in the one pot he had left. He had discovered several items had gone missing since the departure of his crew.<p>

How mysterious.

After finishing his meager meal, Sasuke went down the stairwell and into the large cargo area, where he was greeted by what amounted to his own personal junkyard. The droids had been busy; two of them were still preoccupied with sorting. It had all been dumped into two enormous _hills_.

The Accipiter itself was not the largest transport ship ever built, but it wasn't the _smallest _either. The cargo bay alone could fit maybe four good-sized shuttles with room to spare. The ceiling was high, about 42 meters; the length was a little over 100 meters. Agitated, he snapped at the droids to get out of his way, and they scattered in a hurry to their respective posts. He had half a mind to open the docking gate and send some of it into space. The hoard was that overwhelming. As he surveyed a mound of intact sheets of metal, it didn't take him long to realize there was something very strange about the sheer amount of scrap. He scrutinized a large sheet that could've been a solar heat panel for a shuttle. In fact, a lot of these parts looked as if an entire fleet had been blasted to bits. On yet another panel, he discovered a registration number similar to those on mission transport vessels. The space he was currently flying in should be neutral, but then again, it wasn't unheard of for a band of pirates to raid a transport group like this, but what would be the profit in such mass destruction? Or had they done it for sport?

Sasuke shook his head and whistled at the carnage. "Poor saps."

Walking around the second "hill" on the side nearest the bay's gate, Sasuke suddenly stopped. On instinct, his hand had gone to his hip, expecting his blaster to be fastened there, but he'd left it on the table in the mess hall.

It was half-buried under rubble, but Sasuke could see the front portion of a one-man starfighter. He called over the droids to clear away the heavier debris. As they did, he started to see the portal window of the ball-shaped cockpit. The hexagonal wing on the right side had been destroyed. It had taken several hits from a high-energy canon.

As he surveyed at the fighter in all its glory, he couldn't help but wonder at his luck. He'd rather a starfighter than a pod any day. He'd used to fly these things when living with his father. And though the droids hadn't picked up any signs of life inside, Sasuke was a cautious person by nature. He went back to the mess hall to reclaim his blaster and strapped it around his waist as he started down the stairwell. Once again, the door to the bay glitched and refused to separate. Even with a heavy kick, it didn't budge and the computer stubbornly refused to respond. It must have been a fluke though, because seconds later the door began to pull apart.

As soon as he walked into the bay, every hair on his body stood on end.

In his life, Sasuke had learned to sense imminent danger. Something was off. Something was very wrong.

He took only two steps into the cargo area before noticing the starfighter's hatch was open. A droid lay twitching on the floor with sparks shooting out of its empty arm socket. Sasuke hid behind a stack of two crates, blaster in hand. He snuck a glance around the corner, but didn't see any movement. Then again, there was so much shit in here it'd be easy as hell to hide. That's assuming that whoever it was that came out of the fighter was still in the bay with him.

"Don't move."

Someone dropped in on him from above, and Sasuke felt the cool press of metal at his throat. Ignoring the command, he started to rise and growled as the knife cut into his skin.

"Are you deaf? I said not to move." A hand snaked around his chest and held him firmly in place. The man's fingers wrapped around his and loosened the grip he had on the blaster. The gun dropped to the floor.

"Should you really be doing this when I saved your life?" Sasuke's voice was surprisingly calm.

The man laughed and pulled Sasuke flush to his chest. "I suppose if I let you go, we can call us even, don't y'think?"

Sasuke smirked. "I'll at least give you a chance to explain yourself before I kill you."

"You're pretty cocky for someone in this position."

Sasuke was violently shoved away. He moved fast as he spun around, eyes darting to the blaster currently under the man's boot.

"See something you like?" he asked Sasuke.

On the contrary, Sasuke was surprised he'd been rendered immobile by this person now standing in front him. His hair and face were matted with dark blood. There was an open gash on his right shoulder. His clothes were singed, patches of his skin dark with ash. The man's hand, the one holding the knife, started shaking in spasms. The fight in his eyes faded as he dropped to one knee, his dirty face contorting in pain.

Sasuke was fast. He took it as an opportunity, rushing forward and as he grabbed the man by the wrist was able to disarm him easily. He flipped the knife in the air and caught it with his other hand. He held it to the man's throat. Right away, Sasuke's chest became bathed in blood. He glanced down to see the stranger's back covered with it. As he collapsed, it was out of an involuntary reaction that Sasuke caught him. His skin was on fire with a high fever, and after coughing up a large amount of blood, he suddenly passed out in Sasuke's arms.

"You're kidding me," said Sasuke. "If you think I'm going to help you - "

The man started to convulse. Blood spilled from his pale lips as he started foaming at the mouth.

"Well, shit." Sasuke sighed at yet another bad turn of luck, and he lowered the flailing body to the floor.

Assuming that it hadn't been stolen, there should be an emergency medical kit in one of the living quarters. Of course, it would only end up being useful if the guy lived long enough for him to return with it.

* * *

><p>"W-water."<p>

Sasuke looked up from the viewscreen. He'd been reading some forum updates on a board where missions were posted. Wordlessly, he got to his feet and poured the man a glass of water. He'd been in and out of consciousness for two days. Sasuke didn't have the means or knowledge to provide the kind of treatment he probably needed, but he'd done what he could for no other reason than a stab of empathy had overridden his better judgment. The man's body was covered head to toe in bandages. Sasuke put the glass to his lips. The stranger had barely the strength to lift his head and swallow, but he gulped it down nonetheless. Eyes a disastrous shade of blue did a quick shuffle around the cabin before landing on Sasuke. The man licked his lips, sighed deeply, and shut his eyes as if in a crippling amount of pain.

"They're all dead, aren't they?"

Unconsciously, Sasuke crossed his arms to his chest, understanding implicitly what he was being asked. "Yes," he said firmly. "I think so."

The muscles in the man's face tightened, and he turned away. Sasuke meant to exit the cabin and leave him to his grief.

"You don't have to go."

Sasuke stopped and glanced over his shoulder. The man raised his left hand in front of his face, surveying the bandages that wrapped around his arm. Sasuke had been afraid of there being an infection. He'd washed and dressed the wounds very carefully.

"You did this?"

He didn't answer.

The man continued to watch him - a mix of disbelief, sadness, and gratitude in the way he gazed at Sasuke.

"Thank you," he murmured. His eyes closed again, and Sasuke was sure he'd lost consciousness.

On the way out of the cabin, he paused in the corridor and had to put a hand to the wall in order to support himself. Disturbing images flashed through his mind and made him dizzy. He covered his mouth when he felt a twinge of nausea, and, in his gut, he knew it had been a mistake to do what he'd done. This was not how one survived in this life. Not with random acts of charity that would only end up burdening him in the long run.

The only one you can ever truly rely on is yourself, and there was no benefit in making sacrifices for the sake of someone else.

If Sasuke had any luck left at all, maybe it would be best to hope this man didn't live through another night.

* * *

><p>Another two days came and went, but his stubborn visitor refused to die. He was also starting to stink up the cabin because Sasuke thought the idea of a sponge bath was just crossing the line. While he'd wasted a fair amount of time on - and here Sasuke cringed - <em>nursing <em>the man back to health, he'd also come to realize that the amount of scrap metal he'd attained was a virtual goldmine. As he saw it, there was nothing unconscionable in turning a profit from the stranger's dead comrades because, after all, Sasuke had saved his life. He felt owed this. These people - besides the one currently recuperating in one of his living quarters - were gone. They didn't need their demolished ships or money. Sasuke did. He was still alive and needed to eat, to work, to live.

Yesterday, he'd put the starfighter on a lift and started doing the electrical repair work. He thought it was even possible to rebuild the lost wing with the various parts of other starfighter parts he'd found. There were enough parts to account for at least four crafts. It was hard to say how many shuttles there had been, but he guessed a half dozen, although the damage suggested they'd been obliterated.

At present, Sasuke found himself in the Accipiter's cockpit. The floor was littered with old navigation maps he'd brought out from storage. It was a hobby of his from childhood. He'd always enjoyed drawing maps of the stars and planets. He knew many of the most efficient routes throughout at least five nearby solar systems. To turn a quick profit he'd sell them to new smugglers who didn't know any better. Then he'd turn around and sell the same information to members of the Syndicate just so he could have an in with them. It also helped him keep a thumb on his competition. It didn't make him feel too guilty since he figured a pro pirate knew not to trust anyone. This was how he contributed to his field's evolution.

It was also how he'd justified the fact that he'd saved a man who'd held a knife to his throat.

It was an investment only. One that had already earned him a near-intact starfighter and enough scrap metal that once he was able to find a buyer, he'd earn enough to purchase a new pod and still have change left over.

Sasuke gazed at the stars through the wide panel windscreen. It was an odd feeling sometimes, to look out into space. To feel the vastness of it. The loneliness.

Unfortunately, the problem was that he _wasn't_alone.

He was lost in thought for a while until he happened to glance at the time. It would likely be best if he paid his guest a visit in case he needed to eat or use the toilet. Sasuke was tired of having to wash soiled sheets. He tried to think of the money as he got up from his seat and pulled the autopilot latch.

* * *

><p>On his way to the cabin, Sasuke stopped by the mess hall to prepare a soup of chicken and vegetables. It was a meager meal, but it was good enough for two adults. As he entered the living quarter, tray in hand, he found the bed to be empty. Bandages lay in a crumpled pile nearby. Carefully and as quietly as possible, he set the tray on the desk. He went to the bathroom and opened the door. The room was steamy, indicating the shower had been used recently.<p>

Sasuke took out his blaster as he went out into the corridor, searching through each of the other cabins (including his own). Obviously, he'd been the only one in the cockpit and the mess hall. He went down the stairwell leading to the bay. The doors, for once, opened without a problem and there was the man he'd been looking for, wearing nothing but his underwear. As Sasuke entered the bay, the man glanced at him over his shoulder and grinned. The marks were somewhat visible on his back, but Sasuke couldn't help a small gasp. There's no way he should even be able to walk, but here he was looking bright-eyed and those wounds… they were healing abnormally fast.

"You shouldn't be moving around," Sasuke said gruffly so that he might be able to disguise his astonishment.

The man ignored him and looked again at his ship, which remained on the lift. "What are you doing with it? Are you repairing it?" Then he started climbing up, his bare feet finding the holds expertly.

"Only a little. I'm not," Sasuke frowned as the other man got into the cockpit and began flipping switches, "entirely familiar with some aspects of the control instruments."

"You really shouldn't mess with another man's ship," came the reply.

"If anything," Sasuke said, trying to restrain himself, "I was helping you out."

"What's to help? It's lost a wing. It needs a whole new ion engine. The targeting system is blown and the thumb switch is jammed. The stern window is cracked. None of the indicator lights work. And what did you do here?" He peeked his head out of the hatch and glared. "Did you screw around with the pistons? Because my hatch is squeaking!" To illustrate, he opened and closed it several times.

Sasuke sneered. "Your window is cracked, you say?" He picked up a wrench from off the floor and threw it at the window. It was childish, but this guy was really getting on his nerves.

"What the hell are you doing?" With his eyes flashing, the man got out of the fighter and dropped to the ground as if the height were nothing to him. He stomped toward Sasuke, his finger pointed at his chest. "What? Did you think I was just gonna let you take what's left of all my friends without a fight? What kind of cold-hearted bastard are you?"

Sasuke grabbed the man's wrist and squeezed it. "I'm the bastard that saved your life, you ungrateful piece of - " He stopped himself, surprised at his own anger. He turned around and began to walk away. "Tch. I don't need this."

Footsteps padded after him. "Wait, wait! Shit, hold on! Hey! Wait, I said!"

Sasuke jerked around when he was grabbed at the shoulder. They stared at one another. The other man seemed a completely different person to what Sasuke had first encountered. Those intense blue eyes were softer now. There was no sluggishness in the way he moved either. It was obvious he was remarkably strong. His entire body was extremely muscular and athletic.

"Listen, I just," he glanced at one of the droids after it made a noise and then back at Sasuke, "I just lost all of my friends, and, to be honest, when I woke up in your cabin - "

"It's not my cabin," Sasuke interrupted. "It's _a _cabin."

"Huh?" He scratched the back of his head. "Anyway. I woke up, and I had no fucking clue where I was or what happened, and I can't just sit around here. I have to get out of here and find the people who set my fleet up and attacked us and - " Suddenly he held a hand to his chest as if he couldn't breathe. He hunched over while his breaths came in strained gasps.

"I don't think you'll be of much help to them in your current condition," Sasuke said sarcastically.

The other man didn't laugh. He looked up at him, and the depth of emotion there caught Sasuke off guard. He hid it well, however.

"I'm Sasuke," he said in a cold voice. "You're on the Accipiter. We're on route toward the Byrrus System. I checked and there were no distress signals sent around the time you and your fleet were supposedly attacked."

The man stiffened at his words. "Like I said, we were set up! We didn't even know we were about to be attacked, so there was no time for a distress signal. There were several starfighter pilots escorting a dozen galactic political officials and their families when suddenly we were attacked by three large cruisers that had been using cloaking devices! In neutral territory! I mean, there were kids on those ships. And women, and - " He bit his lip and averted his gaze.

Sasuke didn't know what to say. He didn't felt uneasy trying to pretend that comfort was even an option.

"Naruto."

"Pardon?" he asked

"You said your name was Sasuke. I'm Naruto. I _used_to be one hell of a starfighter pilot."

Sasuke repressed a smirk. "Want to get a drink?"

Naruto barked out a laugh. "Yeah. I really, really do."

"Put on some clothes first."


	2. Chapter 2

They were in the cockpit, turned toward one another, Sasuke in his seat and Naruto in the co-pilot's. Bottles were scattered at their feet. Naruto talked a lot. Too much for Sasuke's liking, but the alcohol had done a great job of numbing the experience, and it's not as if he'd been having the best week ever either. So far he'd been given the biography on every flight mate Naruto had lost. And that would be an explanation as to why Sasuke was in his current state of apathy - head lulling to the side, eyes glassy, flushed cheeks.

Naruto kept staring all around at the controls, occasionally pulling at latches or pushing buttons. He wasn't in a whole lot better condition than Sasuke except that he remained more talkative and far more excitable. Just watching him made Sasuke tired.

"Could you not touch my ship," he snapped, glaring at the hands pawing the navigation controls.

Naruto ignored him and started fondling the autopilot latch. "Your ship. It's a mid-bulk transport type, right? Class A?"

"Yes. That should be obvious."

Naruto smiled, amused by his sarcastic tone. "The engines are Girodyne?"

"SRB42 sublight. How do you know?"

"I can tell by the sound. I went into your engine room after I got outta the shower." Naruto stopped touching everything in sight and turned toward him, looking him in the eye and speaking in a matter-of-fact manner, "Capissen are better. I swear they halve your fuel consumption."

Sasuke's eyebrow raised. "I do alright by fuel. For what I do, Girodyne engines are more flexible when it comes to modifications."

"For what you _do_?" Naruto cackled. "You don't have to be vague. I get it. I know what you are. Pirates need their illegal mods, yeah? I know with Capissen, both the civilian and military models all are registered with the Syndicate. You can get away without a registration when it comes to Girodyne, but if your ship breaks down, it's harder to find parts."

"Not so hard when you shop the black market."

"Fair enough. I see you have hyperdrive. On a transport ship?"

"It's a transport ship when it comes to the bulk, but it can move as well as a light freighter when it has to," Sasuke explained, getting defensive.

"I'd go mad inside a bulky transport ship. No offense."

Sasuke's voice rose more than he meant it to. "It's _not_a bulky transport ship! It can move like a light freighter because it has most of the parts of one, but it remains classed as a transport ship so that I can - "

"Fly under the radar?" Naruto took a swig of his beer. "Yeah, I get it. You're a pirate. I know your type well."

"Hn. You seem to think you know a lot."

Naruto grinned and held his beer out in front of him. "Because I do."

Sasuke was on the verge of saying something about how that knowledge hadn't come in handy for his dead comrades, but even drunk, it was easy to bite down on such cruel words.

Naruto noticed his hesitation. "What?"

Sasuke blinked at him and then shook his head. "Nothing."

Naruto looked confused. "No, what? You were gonna say something. Don't hold back. I can take it."

Sasuke fidgeted with his hands. "I could use a mechanic around here. I mean, when you've healed. So that you can pay me back for -"

"Saving my life?" Naruto interjected. "Yeah, I know. I owe you. Anything I can do to help you out, I swear I'll do it."

Uncomfortable with such a pledge, Sasuke glanced away. "It was nothing."

Naruto frowned. "It wasn't nothing to me, and I don't break my promises. I won't forget what you did, Sasuke. You could've let me die, and you didn't. If I have to spend the rest of my life trying to repay you for that, then I will."

"That's not why I - " Sasuke stopped, unable to come up with a reason as to why he hadn't let Naruto die. He'd tried to convince himself it had to do with money, but he would've been better off having left this man to his fate. He could've kept the scrap for himself as well as Naruto's starfighter and no one would be the wiser. "Nevermind," he said when Naruto wouldn't stop staring at him like that, all full of approval and gratitude. It made him ill.

"You're weird," said Naruto.

"Coming from someone like you, I don't want to hear it."

Naruto mussed up his own hair while spilling a bit of his beer in the process. "I think we'll work well together, Sasuke. I'll be the best thing that's happened to you in a long time."

Sasuke turned around in the seat and stared out into space. "That's not saying much."

"It's been tough for you, too, eh? Maybe we should drink to better times." He held out the bottle, and, begrudgingly, Sasuke clinked it with his own.

"I doubt it can get much worse," he mumbled. "And by the way, if you keep spilling that on my interior, I'm going to slit your throat while you sleep."

Naruto grinned. "You're a feisty one. I like that."

"Naruto?"

"Hm?"

Sasuke threw a bottle cap at him; Naruto caught it easily with his free hand.

"Just shut up."

* * *

><p>Later that night, the two of them got to talking more about ships and had ended up in the narrow space above the engine room since Sasuke had grumbled about some of the electrical and mechanical issues he'd experienced lately.<p>

"See, y'see this," Naruto, wearing gloves, had his hand in the wiring the same way Sasuke had days ago. "It's threaded. I'm surprised you haven't had a fire yet."

Sasuke watched him work from his place at the top of the ladder.

"God, I love that sound," said Naruto as he proceeded to play with the wiring. "You can tell a lot about a ship by the way the engines sound. Whether it's happy or not. They're like women, I swear."

"You're an idiot."

"You don't think so?" Naruto managed to twist around so that he could give him a playful look. "See, like this. I've got my hand in here, and I move my fingers in a way she likes it makes this nice purring sound, but when I do this," a harsh grating noise went off, "Ah, see, she lets me know she doesn't like that." He removed his hand and sniffed his fingers. "Ah, yeah."

"Is there something about mechanics that makes them so crude?" Sasuke asked as he drew himself into the space next to Naruto. There was barely room to move.

Naruto chuckled. "Why do you ask?"

"My last one was just as bad, but I have a feeling he'd exaggerated his experience."

"With fixing ships?"

Sasuke smirked. "With women."

"Ha, well that's how it goes sometimes. So, what happened to him? I've sort of noticed you don't have a crew. You're flying this bad girl on your own?"

"So if ships are like women does that mean you just fingered my girlfriend?"

Naruto's eyes became bright and full of humor. "And you say I'm crude? I guess so. I guess I gave her something you couldn't. So, what about the crew? Did your grouchiness scare them away?"

Sasuke's expression hardened and he slapped Naruto's hand away from the wires so that he could play with them himself. "I guess I wasn't giving them what they needed either. They stole my pod."

"Oh shit, man. No way! No wonder you had your eye on my starfighter."

Sasuke glared.

Naruto shrugged. "It wasn't mine, it was a buddy's. Part of the group that hired us to act as escorts. I sent them a transmission tonight to see what the fuck happened and to let them know one of us survived."

"You sent them a transmission?"

"Yeah, from the fighter's transponder. I got the com-link to work briefly, so they should be able to pick up my location. That way maybe you can get me out of your hair. Oh, oh, what's that face. Maybe you're enjoying having the company of a real man around here?"

"Don't flatter yourself. I'll kick you out the first chance I get. I can hear your snoring from my cabin."

Naruto's face split apart with his grin, his mouth open a bit as he rubbed his tongue against a canine tooth. "I guess this means you're not as easy as your ship, eh?"

Sasuke laughed a low, amused laugh. "Are you calling my spaceship a slut?"

"Well if it looks like a slut, and it flies like a slut..."

Sasuke playfully pushed at the side of Naruto's head, making the other man laugh.

"I haven't laughed like this in a long time. And who woulda thought a guy like you would have a sense of humor? The moment I saw you, I thought you'd be uptight."

"Considering the first time we saw each other you put a knife to my throat. Makes sense."

"Yeah, well," Naruto scratched his cheek, "I was upset. To be honest, I don't remember much of that night after I got out of the fighter."

"You did have a fever. No wonder you were out of your mind. I'd blame it on head trauma, but I have a feeling you're a natural airhead."

Naruto's tone changed to something more melancholy. "Yeah..." But then he seemed to shrug it off. "You did a good job with the patching. There's not much more I could've done here, but I wanna take a look at your security system. The bay door was all fucked up today."

"It worked when I went in," said Sasuke.

"Well, yeah, that's because I fixed it."

He blinked. "What?"

"I fixed it. It looked like someone had gone in there and purposely imposed glitches so that whenever you accessed certain areas, the computer wouldn't recognize the command source. So I ripped open the panel and manually overrode it. I just assumed it was a virus...?"

Bewildered by this information, Sasuke couldn't help but feel suspicious when it came to Naruto's abilities. "Who are you?"

"Hey," Naruto answered, "For what _I_do, these are the skills I have to have."

"But you're no pirate. I'd know it if you were."

"No, I'm no pirate." Naruto's smile was strained. "So, what say you? Should we head back to the cockpit for more beer? I think I'm starting to sober up."

Before Sasuke could ask any more questions about Naruto's identity, the man was already maneuvering his way out of the tight space, knocking into Sasuke's shoulder as he tried to get around him.

Slowly, Sasuke started screwing the panel into place as he endeavored to piece together all he knew of Naruto. Despite their initial meeting, Sasuke had never really considered Naruto to be a dangerous threat, but the more he learned about the other man, the more he felt Naruto couldn't be as easily categorized as other people he'd known.

Naruto was already making his way down the ladder, but he stopped and poked his head through the hatch one more time. "Sasuke?"

"I'll be there in a bit, and don't," he narrowed his eyes at Naruto, "Just don't touch anything."

Naruto smirked. "Don't worry. I won't touch her unless she begs for it." He disappeared, and Sasuke heard him land with a thump onto the floor of the engine room.

After a few minutes of being alone, he shook off his doubts and went down to the engine room. He watched the blue lights of the generators. They flashed opposite to every pulse of the engines. Somehow, the ship sounded different than before, as if it had let out a sigh of relief.

"For the record," he spoke to the ship, "I'm not jealous."

But damnit if this wasn't the most satisfied she'd ever sounded.

* * *

><p>For the next week, as they edged nearer to the Byyrus System, Sasuke was surprised at how useful having Naruto around could be - he was a pilot, an electrician, and a mechanic. While he was gracious enough to bestow at least that much credit on Naruto, there was one thing the man definitely could <em>not<em>do - cook.

Yet, Naruto insisted on making dinner tonight. They were in the mess hall. Sasuke was sitting at the table, writing out a supply list for when they landed on Quintana. Naruto was at the stove boiling water for some rice.

"So, do you think it's weird I haven't received word after all those transmissions I sent last week?" asked Naruto.

"Maybe the com-link in the fighter is faulty."

Naruto glanced over his shoulder. "Why don't you let me use yours then?"

"I told you already," Sasuke growled, irritated because he couldn't concentrate on the list with all of the incessant questioning. "There are people out there who monitor my transmissions. I don't know you. I don't know who you work for, and I'm not going to take that risk."

Naruto groaned. "But that means I have to wait until Quintana! That's three more days!"

"Not my problem," said Sasuke. "Now shut up and let me finish this."

Naruto mumbled curses at Sasuke as he started re-hydrating a packet of mixed vegetables. "Your modifications on the hyperdrive included replacing the original generators with Series 401 motivators, right?"

"Yes. It was a considerable upgrade."

"A considerably expensive one, too, I bet. What did you do to convert the propulsion system so that would accept the excess power source? Like, do you ever experience random blackouts?"

Sasuke growled. "Is quantum physics all you ever think about? I upgraded to a quadex power core my ex-crew and I stole off a freighter in an impound lot. Maybe if you had as much knowledge of cooking as you do the working systems of spacecraft, then I wouldn't have to throw you out once we reach the market."

Naruto threw a piece of carrot at him. It landed on top of the papers Sasuke had been going over.

"Do you mind?" Although Sasuke picked up the carrot and started to eat it. "You shouldn't waste food. We're running low on portions."

"Are you callin' me a mooch? Anyway, you won't get rid of me. You need me. I can help you find some good deals once we get there, and I have nowhere to go. I'm letting you keep the starfighter and all that shit you scrounged from my poor, dead comrades."

"I can tell you this much," Sasuke said as he rolled up the papers and wrapped an elastic band around them. "Where they went, they won't be needing it."

"Fuck you, Sasuke." This time Naruto threw half of an onion at him. "It's killing me that there hasn't been some sort of ceremony for all of them. And what about their families? Well, not that many of them had families…"

Sasuke picked up the onion, stood, and went over to the counter. He set it on the cutting board and watched Naruto mince the hell out of some strange smelling herbs.

"What are you making?" he asked.

Naruto didn't answer.

"Are you pouting?" He prodded Naruto in the arm.

"It's called curry," Naruto answered him finally and then sighed. "I used to have it a lot at home."

Sasuke hunched over the counter and rolled the onion around on it. "You never told me what your home planet is."

"You never asked."

"I'm asking now." Sasuke straightened up. "Want help?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks. And I can't tell you what my home planet is," he suddenly stopped chopping and pointed the knife at Sasuke's chest in such a quick motion that Sasuke barely had time to narrow his eyes at the blade. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Sasuke lifted his gaze from the tip of the blade to Naruto's oddly-colored eyes that seemed to change their shade of blue depending on the man's mood.

"I suppose we all have our secrets," Sasuke said. He smirked as he pushed the knife away with only a finger.

Naruto went back to chopping, but he sighed an awful lot as he did it.

"Want me to put the rice in?" asked Sasuke. "The water's boiling."

"Yeah, that'd be good. I'm about done here anyway. You know," Naruto spoke slowly as if his small brain was trying to process how to create words out of his thoughts, "I may have one or two secrets I have to keep, but you're the one that's plenty mysterious, even for a space pirate. You don't answer any of the personal questions I ask you."

On that note, Sasuke went back to the table and took a seat at the long bench. He could remember what it had been like when he'd had an entire crew here. He used to hate having dinner with them, they were all so damn loud and annoying. At times, though, it might've been entertaining the way Karin and Suigetsu would go at it until either he or Juugo would have to separate them. Usually, if Sasuke got tired of their company, he'd escape to the cockpit. Had he really been that bad of a captain that they saw no other choice but to leave? He found himself shaking his head.

Naruto had been staring at him, his eyebrows raised. "You were thinking something just then."

"It's not important," he replied. "Have you known many pirates?"

"Many. I've worked with some here and there. In my line of work."

"What exactly is your line of work? I'm doubting that escorting and being a fighter pilot are the only things you do based on your skill set."

Naruto showed off one of his forced smiles that Sasuke had come to hate so much. "Another thing I can't really talk about."

"Why? Do you work for the Syndicate?"

"If you really thought that," said Naruto. "I'm sure you would've tried to kill me by now."

"Try? If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

Naruto laughed. "You're definitely cocky enough to be a pilot for the Black Fleet."

"How did you know I was Black Fleet?"

"It's easy to guess. Knew you were a pirate. You're arrogant, cocky, and pretty fuckin' good with your hands." He looked over his shoulder again. "Though nowhere good as I am. Ow!"

A drop of blood splattered on the counter. Naruto had cut deep into his thumb.

Sasuke smirked. "Yes. You're plenty good with your hands. I feel so threatened by your skills."

"Shut up." Naruto sucked the tip of his thumb and continued chopping.

"Shouldn't you wrap that?"

"Nope, it wasn't too deep. It was hardly bleeding at all."

Sasuke frowned. He'd thought he'd seen a fairly deep gash, but as he kept eyeing it, he couldn't see much of a mark at all.

The pan sizzled as the vegetables were dropped in with some cooking oil. Naruto seasoned it with salt and pepper, some herbs, and another spice that he didn't recognize.

"So what do you call this thing you're making?" Sasuke asked.

"Curry," said Naruto. "It's something my parents made a lot when I was really young."

"Hm." Sasuke pressed his fingers to his lips. "Never heard of it."

"The recipe goes way back, I think. Some sort of cultural tradition on the planet where I grew up." Naruto gave another one of his sighs. "That one I would tell you about except it doesn't exist anymore."

"Doesn't exist?" Sasuke cocked his head to the side in question.

"Syndicate destroyed it during the last Great War. Parents sent me out on a pod before it happened. They didn't make it out though."

"Oh." It was hardly an intelligent response on his part. He cleared his throat. "Sorry."

Naruto shrugged. "That's life," he said. "I think this is about ready. Wanna get some plates and some beer from the fridge?"

Sasuke got up without complaint at being ordered around. He uncapped the two bottles and set them at the table along with some plates and cutlery. It wasn't more than another ten minutes and the food was ready. Steam rose from the rice as Naruto spooned generous portions onto their plates. Then followed a brownish-looking sauce filled with vegetables. It had heat in its taste, but it was surprisingly delicious.

"It's good, right?" Naruto asked, grinning proudly.

"I've had worse."

"It's my Mom's recipe. She'd add in some chili peppers for a bit of kick, but you didn't have any of that in your stock. Maybe we can pick some up at the market."

Sasuke gave a half smile. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"Soon you'll realize how much you need me, Sasuke," Naruto said with his mouth full of rice as he pointed a fork at him. "Just you wait!"

* * *

><p>Naruto had spent the better part of the last two days screwing around with the hyperdrive generators and running tests on the converters. He was still iffy on the patching done to the wires, but he thought they could switch into hyperdrive without exploding an engine.<p>

Probably.

He was sort of in awe over a lot of Sasuke's modifications. He'd put a lot of work into his ship. It had surely taken years and several hundreds of thousands in ryu to come up with some of these parts. He was a bit surprised Sasuke let him take charge of all things mechanical and electrical for now, because, really, they didn't even know each other, did they?

Although Naruto had absolutely no intention of fucking Sasuke over. He was a man of his word, and he knew he owed Sasuke his life. Sasuke was someone who kept mostly to himself. He hadn't let a single bit of personal information slip out - not his age, birthday, origin or even the number of women he'd shagged in his lifetime (because Naruto _really _wanted to compare numbers). But, Naruto had come across many pirate captains, and most of them were like this. They had that "trust no one" attitude, and Naruto could respect that. He had his own secrets, and he was also cautious about who he opened up to, but something about Sasuke was different. Or maybe that's just how you felt when a guy saved your life. It was one thing to have another starfighter pilot shoot down an enemy at the last second before they incinerated your ship, but Sasuke had watched over him for nearly three days as he faded in and out of consciousness. He remembered waking up from time to time only to find Sasuke at the desk, reading documents on the viewscreen or sorting through electronic transmissions. He probably didn't know it, but he had a tendency to read aloud so Naruto might've picked up some information Sasuke wasn't aware he'd given out.

He'd noticed that Sasuke liked his alone time. If they weren't together, then Sasuke was either in his cabin or in the cockpit. A couple of times, Naruto had tried to enter Sasuke's cabin without waiting for permission. The first time, Naruto had been thrown to the ground, pinned, and then kicked out of the room with Sasuke swearing a swift death as the door wedged closed in his face.

Naruto chuckled. Picking on Sasuke, talking about the ship, all these things had helped him to bear the loss of his own flight mates. He wasn't exactly sure why he'd been the only one to survive, and it made him feel guilty.

As soon as they arrived on Quintana, he was going to make a detour and find some information. Maybe someone had put a hit out on the fleet they were escorting, maybe it was the starfighter pilots they were after, or maybe the entire mission had been a setup to destroy both groups? Being a hired fighter pilot meant he was paranoid by nature, but it was all within reason considering his personal background.

No one had responded to his transmissions which was strange, but he knew just where to go to at the market to find what (_who_, rather) he needed.

Since Sasuke had shut himself up in his cabin, Naruto was on his way to the cockpit to mess around with the navigation system and gauge some of the newest readings for the generators he'd been tinkering with. He walked through the mess hall, which was spotless. They were both anal when it came to keeping the ship clean. He went up the second stairwell and down another long corridor that led to a ladder. He pushed open the hatch, down another corridor, and put in the passcode for the pit.

Naruto's favorite part of a ship was _always_the cockpit. Fuck a bridge. Bridges were too big. He wanted the space where he sat down to fly to be small and cozy. That's why he appreciated flying smaller ships. Of course, it was still three or four times the size of a starfighter cockpit, but he still felt just as home with all the flashing lights, gadgets, levers, and the wide view of the stars. If it was Naruto's ship, he'd be flying it himself all of the time, but Sasuke really relied a lot on the autopilot.

He scuffled around in the center of the pit and glanced behind him as if he were expecting to be caught any second. He sat in the pilot's chair and pulled at the autopilot latch to turn it off. He put his hands on the controls and started flying manually.

"Oh, that feels good, doesn't it?" he asked the ship. "Has Sasuke been neglecting you? Well, Naruto's here now, and he's gonna give you all the attention you deserve."

The ship seemed to purr at him, and he laughed. Sasuke got insanely jealous when he thought the ship responded so well to Naruto. It wasn't that Sasuke took bad care of it, it was just that Naruto had been raised by pilots and spent most of his lifetime flying ships, fixing them, talking to them as if they were friends. He lived and _breathed _this stuff.

He put the com-link in his ear. They were only a day away from their landing point. The navigation map showed a few other ships in the area. He'd been to Quintana not that long ago, maybe a month. He knew its reputation well. It was a black market full of all kinds of illegal shops hidden behind those that, on the outside, might appear legit. Except even government officials knew what was going on, but they could be paid off like everyone else. Below the city was a whole underworld where information, arms, women, and drugs could be bought. It could be dangerous if you weren't used to it.

Naruto adjusted the earpiece. He thought he could hear some static on the other end and wondered if it was Sasuke trying to find him, but when the holographic viewscreen popped up right in front of his face, he nearly gave a yelp. He looked down and realized he'd flipped on the subspace radio.

"Wonderful to see you again, Unit 492727ZED."

The tone was sarcastic, and from the look of those tribal tattoos, Naruto could hazard a guess he'd just made communication with a bounty hunter.

Naruto pulled the autopilot latch. Shit, Sasuke was going to kill him. The man on the screen had stringy, long blond hair - a part of which had been shaved off above his left ear. A few pieces were tied in tiny banded braids.

"Um, hi?" Naruto scratched the back of his head.

The man on the screen glared. "Who are you, un? Where's Sasuke?"

"Huh? Who's that?" Naruto had a nose for danger, and he knew this wasn't good. He wondered if he had time to put the shields up. "Oh, you mean the guy that used to own the ship? I, uh, won it as a bet."

"Sasuke? Gamble? That man doesn't gamble unless he knows he's gonna win."

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, well. I guess he met his match with me, so, uh, if I hear from him again, I'll be sure to give him your regards." He was about to switch off the radio, when the man on the screen told him to stop. Naruto raised his eyes slowly.

"Something's not right here, un." The man folded his hands in front of him to where they could be seen on the screen.

Naruto's gaze dropped as he noticed a strange appendage starting to wriggle out from the center of the man's palms.

"Sick, you have tongues coming out of your hands? That is fucked up," said Naruto and then, realizing he'd spoken aloud, grimaced. "I mean, that's cool."

"I'll give you ten seconds to tell me where Sasuke is. Tell him I'm here to collect what he owes me."

"Fine," Naruto threw his hands up in the air. "You want to know the truth? I stole it from him. I was on Malacia, at that spa town? There was a dive just outside of the city's borders. I saw Sasuke go in the toilet to take a leak. He was pretty wasted 'cause apparently his crew left'em 'cause they couldn't stand him anymore, so I just walked right onto his ship and jacked it. Bastard didn't know what hit him. I swear it on my dead mother's grave."

Okay, that was low and he hoped his Mom forgave him, but in the interest of keeping Sasuke alive, he thought she'd understand.

"You say his crew left?" The man asked, and the tongues in his hands twisted as he laughed with zeal. "That does sound probable. The Uchihas aren't what I'd call team players."

"Uchiha?" Naruto murmured.

"Sasuke Uchiha. And you stole his ship, un? Okay then." He smirked. "If you do happen to see him again, let him know Deidara came to collect, yeah?"

The view screen went black. Right after, the cockpit doors drew apart. Sasuke walked in and stood behind him.

"You were listening on the com-link?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke took the co-pilot seat and switched the shields on to maximum.

"That freak didn't buy my story, did he?"

Sasuke only answered with a tell-tale look.

Naruto crossed his arms. "Okay, I guess we can talk about this later."

The computer came on and notified them that another ship had locked on to its location.

"What do you wanna do?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke glanced at him and then at the lever for the hyperdrive. "I hope you're as good a mechanic as you seem to think you are."

"Seriously?" Naruto grinned, secured his belt, and started to check the gauges. He put his hand on the large lever. The computer alerted them that the other ship had started to arm its canons. Naruto switched the viewscreen on and magnified the enemy's craft. It was a large cruiser, nearly twice the size of Sasuke's ship.

"Naruto?" Sasuke's tone had some urgency to it.

"You trust me?" Naruto asked as the computer gave another verbal alert that the canons would be firing in less than 60 seconds.

"Do I have a choice?"

Naruto shrugged. "Hold on to your hat," he said and yanked the back the lever.

There was a stuttering noise and all the lights in the pit went out.

"Oh shit." Naruto scrambled to unlatch one of the panels under the control board as the computer started counting down time to impact. The lights came back on. Naruto forced the latch back and this time, pulled it more slowly. Almost instantaneously, there was a loud boom and then a large burst of energy had them rocketing through space until all the stars became a multitude of pinpoints streaking past the window.

What could've only been ten minutes later, the ship stalled, and they were drifting through space. Naruto's hands were clinging to the controls, his breath coming in excited pants as he looked at Sasuke, and then in an instant, found himself on the floor of the cockpit.

Naruto sat up, rubbing his jaw. "What the hell was that for!"

Sasuke stood over him, his face red with anger. "For nearly getting us killed! What the hell did you think you were doing? Do you have any idea who that was?"

"A bounty hunter."

"Well if you knew that much, why did you tell him all of that?"

Naruto got to his feet and grabbed Sasuke by the front of his shirt. "Shit. I've only been here, like, two weeks! How the hell was I supposed to know your life story? You don't tell me anything!"

"That's because it's none of your business!"

"See," Naruto shook him, "This is why I couldn't tell that tongue-guy anything!"

"That isn't my problem!" yelled Sasuke.

"Are you kidding me? I just saved your ass! The hyperdrive worked, didn't it?"

"Worked at the expense of one of my engines and the propulsion system!"

"See, this is why your crew quit, Sasuke. You need to fuckin' learn to open up! You have to trust someone. I wouldn't betray you on purpose."

Sasuke pushed him away and stormed out.

"Yeah, well," Naruto was at a lack for a comeback. "You're not gettin' any dinner tonight with that attitude!" he hollered down the corridor.

Naruto turned and looked out of the window. Not too far off was a dark red planet flanked by two medium-sized moons that each had rings around them.

"Oh," said Naruto as he stared at the planet on which Quintana was located. "I guess we've arrived in the Byrrus System."


	3. Chapter 3

They made arrangements to dock in a secure garage. Apparently and not so surprisingly, the Accipiter was well known in these parts, so Sasuke had said it was worth the extra money to keep it somewhere inconspicuous. Naruto had watched Sasuke leave the ship, donning a hooded black cloak so that his face wouldn't easily be seen. Sasuke had made it very clear that he would be running several errands, and that Naruto would stay put and not leave the ship under any circumstances. Of course, Naruto had argued vehemently that he had his own errands to run, but while trying to work out their differences in opinion during an impromptu fist fight, Naruto had ended up - through some trick of sorcery on Sasuke's part - chained at the wrist to one of the columns in the engine room.

Being a sore loser, Naruto had sworn to him he was going to make mad, passionate love to the ship all day long if Sasuke left him here. That the two of them were gonna fly away together and leave Sasuke behind like the third wheel he was! However, if he wanted to be freed from the restraints, that probably wasn't the best tactic.

At least it meant Sasuke didn't have any plans of kicking him out yet?

Naruto stared at the metal link encircling his wrist. It was an interesting gadget. It tightened whenever he attempted to forcefully take it off.

"Your master sure is kinky, tying me up like this," he said to the ship and sighed. "So unfair. There's a woman at a bar called Spike's, and _man _I wouldn't mind paying her another visit."

* * *

><p>Quintana was a hot, desert town. Ninety percent of the planet was covered in sand. Most of the shops were underground since the city was so often hit by powerful dust storms. Anyone walking the dirt streets was covered head to toe in cloaks. It was nice to get off of the ship and away from Naruto for a while. He'd refused to let Naruto try to fix the engine this morning. Sasuke was ready to shoot him dead if he so much as touched anything in the engine room, which is why they'd come to blows after he'd discovered Naruto had snuck in early in the morning to do repairs.<p>

Deidara making an appearance last night had left him rattled. He thought he'd jammed the ship's frequency so that no one would be able to track him, but he had to wonder if it was Naruto's recent transmissions that had thrown up red flags for some of his enemies. Deidara was a bounty hunter. He used to work for a larger group connected to the Syndicate, but recently a lot of its members had decided to quit in favor of freelancing. He didn't know a lot of the details.

It's true that he might've stolen from Deidara once or twice. But it shouldn't have been anything worth showing himself in a place so close to where the Syndicate had patrols at multiple space posts. The Byrrus System was known for being dodgy. It was ground zero for illegal trading amongst the most violent of mercenaries, thieves, and murderers. Even walking the streets, it wasn't unusual to come across dead bodies. In fact, Sasuke had just stepped over a man whose legs were sticking out of an alley where many of the town's prostitutes set up shop.

It was life as usual here. It was even someone's job to come around with a wagon and pick up the bodies by the hour. No one wanted a corpse in front of their establishment. It made for bad business. Sasuke had already gone to his usual contacts and purchased parts that would be shipped to the garage. He'd also found a buyer for the scrap. They'd have to stay in town a few days.

He lowered his head as he entered another shop. The cloak did well to cover his face. On the outside, it appeared a simple bakery, but as went through a door behind the counter, it led to a stairwell. He passed through a guarded door, the man there recognizing him by the sound of his voice. There were several dealers' tables on which various arms were set out - blasters, lasers, knives, phasers, missile launchers, and other hand-to-hand combat weapons. The serial numbers had all been rubbed off. There were several customers perusing the wares. Some tables provided a soundproof booth in which the weapons could be tested - not always safely. As an alien man with green skin tested a blaster it ricocheted and put a hole through his foot. The customers nearby laughed uproariously as the alien screamed in pain - but no sound could be heard through the glass.

Sasuke approached a table with a variety of blasters. He'd had his for some time. A newer model might be more efficient. He picked one up. It was lighter than his current one, and the texture of the grip was rougher, too, making it less likely to slip.

"I see you're interested in this particular piece?" asked the dealer. He had pale purple hair and a red coloring to his eyes. His nails were long and pointed. The man glanced around suspiciously before speaking again, "It comes from a Syndicate post. A new prototype, snuck out by a janitor." He cackled and clicked his nails together. "You won't find another like it in this room."

"How much?" Sasuke asked gruffly.

"For you... 1,000 ryu."

Sasuke set the blaster on the table and started to walk away.

"Fine, fine. For you... 850!"

Sasuke tugged his hood down and narrowed his eyes. The man took a step back and covered his mouth with his bony fingers.

"Six hundred," the dealer said in a whisper. "If I go any lower I lose out."

Sasuke handed him the money and clutched the blaster handle. The polished black metal glinted in the light. There wasn't a fingerprint on it. The dealer bowed meekly. Sasuke stopped at a few other tables but saw nothing else worth purchasing. He exchanged words - and information - with a couple of his former contacts. One was a well-known informant and the other a merchant he had done business with for many years. On his way out of the room, he stopped as an interesting bit of conversation going on between an attractive female alien and a black-bearded man caught his attention. They were talking of a fleet of shuttles that a group of Hunters had annihilated two weeks ago. The pair were laughing as they spoke of it.

Sasuke didn't linger long. He'd heard enough. He put his hood up, exited the building, and was immediately hit by the full blazing force of the sun. The sand burned red, glowing like hellfire as he made his way to the docking garage.

* * *

><p>Naruto considered himself a God of all things mechanical and electrical. It had taken him hardly any time to get out of that lovely bit of hardware Sasuke had snapped to his wrist.<p>

"Stay in the ship, my ass," he mumbled as he went through Sasuke's wardrobe to find something he could use to help disguise himself. It looked like he only had the option of a white cloak buried in the back and inside a zipped canvas bag (good thing Naruto was nosy and able to find it). It had to be laced in the middle, and there was a red sash with a few gold embellishments that had to be wrapped around the waist as well as a brown belt that had to be buckled in three different places. He put on some leather boots. Sasuke had taken his blaster, so Naruto grabbed two small blades, the smaller of which he sheathed into a pocket in the inside lining of his boot; the other he attached to the belt. There was a rack of long swords on the wall, but they looked more like antiques or collector's items than they did working weapons.

As he left the ship, he nodded to one of the garage attendants. Once outside, the streets were crowded with people of all ages, races, and species. It was easy to tell the citizens from the treacherous types. The ones who knew what they were doing blended easily into the throng of people as if invisible. Naruto moved through without touching a single person. He veered left off the main road, passing a stall selling roasted meats. His stomach growled.

He took another right, which led to a shady looking alley. A giant sand rat crossed in front of him and dove behind a trash bin. The end of the alley led him to a building made of sandstone and marked by an unassuming gated iron door. Above it was a tacky neon sign that read: Spike's.

Naruto grinned as he went down the stairs, passing by two armed bouncers, who barely gave him a glance. There was loud music playing. Glasses kept breaking. The customers were laughing and shouting. The bar area was swamped as the bartenders tried to keep up with orders. There were three: a tall, beefy man with a bushy red beard; a slender alien woman with blue diamond-patterned skin and a nice set of tits; and another alien female, who had translucent oblong-shaped wings on her back. Naruto had been busy checking out the one woman's breasts when someone suddenly snatched his arm and yanked him to a stool.

"I'd know you anywhere," said the voice in his ear. "Even in that fancy cloak."

Naruto put his elbow on the bar, grinning from ear to ear. "Long time no see."

"I could say the same about you. Thought you were dead. I heard about the ambush."

Naruto held up a finger to quiet the other person as the bartender with the wings came to take his order, which was lucky given the crowd in here. She mixed the drink in front of him. As she set it on the bar, it foamed and little bubbles popped and jumped like fireworks.

"Yeah, well," said Naruto as he took a sip, puckered his mouth. "Ugh, that's a taste you never get used to. It's funny I ran into you here, Sai. You're just the person I was lookin' for."

"Oh?" Sai pulled down his hood. "Somehow I don't think it's a coincidence."

"Here, let me buy you a drink."

Sai smirked. "Is this how you intend to get information out of me?"

"Aren't we just two old friends talkin'?"

"My information doesn't come cheap, Naruto," Sai said in a lowered voice.

"Of course not." Naruto leaned toward him and placed a hand on his thigh. "So what do I have to do to get you to tell me who fucked me and my fight mates over?"

"If I tell you what I know, what is it you plan on doing? Something rash and stupid, I'm sure, as that's your style."

"Nothing much," Naruto drank more as he glanced at a group of women dancing in front of the band, "I'll just show them the same courtesy they did my friends."

Sai clinked his glass against Naruto's. "Cheers to that."

* * *

><p>When Sasuke arrived at the garage, he just had this feeling that something wasn't quite right. He went to his cabin and, noticing articles of clothing on the floor that were not there this morning, he then went to the engine room, where in place of Naruto was a hastily scribbled note. On top of it, he found the wrist restraints. He hadn't expected Naruto to be unable to get out of them, but he also thought he'd made it clear that he didn't want him to leave the ship. Was he even familiar with the town? Sasuke wasn't sure. He couldn't recall if they'd ever talked about it.<p>

"Serves that idiot right if he gets into trouble," Sasuke said as he collected the note and restraints.

It wasn't his fault if Naruto got himself killed.

Sasuke went back to his cabin. He sat on the edge of the bed and admired his new blaster. He probably could've sold his old one for a good price, too, but it was always advantageous to have a spare. He went to go put it in the wardrobe when he noticed the unzipped canvas bag, which he discovered to be empty.

"That fucking thief!" he growled.

He knew Naruto had taken it into town to use as a disguise, but _that_cloak? It was a goddamn family heirloom! It had been worn by his uncles, his cousin, his father, and even his brother. His father had passed it onto him before he'd died.

Sasuke paced back and forth, mumbling and shooting glances at the blaster. Finally, he picked it up, put on his microfibre cloak and gloves and headed back into town. That cloak was hardly ordinary and Naruto - with his particular features of bright blond hair, blue eyes, and odd marks on his cheeks - would easily stand out. All Sasuke had to do was ask around, and he was sure to run into him.

* * *

><p>Finding Naruto didn't prove as easy as he thought it would be. He'd asked vendors, random people on the streets, and then done his own search of various establishments. No one had seen a man of that description. It wasn't until there was a commotion at the opposite end of the street he was on that he got a whiff of where Naruto might be. A few people came staggering out of an alley, some of them bleeding from the head. As they were running away, Sasuke went the opposite direction. It led to a bar with a certain reputation for trouble. Sasuke glided smoothly through the crowd, down the steps, and came to a stop in front of an all-out brawl. Bottles were flying across the room, shattering into pieces. Men were throwing each other into furniture. At the center of the mob were two men who stood back to back, fighting off guys twice their size.<p>

One of them was wearing a familiar white cloak.

"Youngsters these days, always lookin' for trouble," said an old blind man sitting on a stool beside Sasuke.

Sasuke watched for a while. Both were skilled in martial arts, though he'd known that of Naruto already. Men came in pairs as they attacked Naruto. The strange thing was that both he and the other man were smiling. They didn't use anything but their bodies to defend themselves. Others went at them with knives, metal pipes and jagged pieces of glass. One guy who started toward Naruto must have been nearly seven feet tall. He lunged toward Naruto, but Naruto dodged the punch and slid between the man's legs. Once on the floor, he swiped out his leg and brought the alien down to his knees. He landed a swift kick to the guy's jaw just as someone else tried to jump onto his back, but Naruto's partner - or whoever he was - grabbed hold of another big guy's wrist and threw him into the one trying to jump Naruto.

Men lay groaning at their feet while others scrambled to get out of the room, spouting curses at them and calling them demons. Eventually the crowd seemed to tire of this form of entertainment as another fight broke out at the bar when someone's girlfriend was hit on by another man.

Naruto still hadn't noticed his presence. He and his friend were talking and laughing, proud of their behavior. The other man put his arm around Naruto and started guiding him to the bar. Naruto had a big smile on his face that vanished as he looked up and saw Sasuke standing there. When he stopped, his friend stopped.

"What did you stop for?" The other man was pale with short black hair and dark eyes. He looked Sasuke up and down in a condescending manner. "Sorry, you're not my friend's type."

"Sai," hissed Naruto as he punched his shoulder.

"What? He's not is he? He'd be out of your league anyway."

"Shut up, you asshole. M'not gonna buy you any more drinks if you keep mouthing off."

"He's drunk," Sai said as if Sasuke couldn't figure that out on his own.

"I'm glad to see the cloak fits you so well," Sasuke said through clenched teeth.

"Oh this?" Naruto hiccupped. "It's just somethin' I found lyin'," he hiccupped again, "around."

In a quick move, Sasuke grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him to his side. "We're leaving. I think you've already attracted too much attention to yourself."

Naruto pulled out of his hold. "You're not the boss of me." He jabbed Sasuke in the chest with his finger. "M'gonna have another drink with m'friend Sai here. Y'know, since the rest of m'friends are dead, and he's about all I have left. Which is unfortunate, 'cause he's a bit of an ass."

Sai appeared nonplussed at this bit of information. Naruto slapped him on the back though, and that seemed to re-gain his attention.

"Sai and I go way back. Way before you and me, Sasuke. So why dun you return to the ship like a - " Naruto's jaw fell open as a woman with long, dark hair swished by him and winked suggestively over her shoulder. Naruto walked after her.

He and Sai stood there and watched, speechless, as Naruto disappeared around the bar and into a hallway, where there were several closed doors. Sasuke turned his back on Sai. Upon approaching one of the stools, a scrawny, toady looking alien scurried away from him as if afraid. Frowning, Sasuke sat and ordered a beer.

"Don't worry," Sai came up behind him. "He won't be very long. If you know what I mean."

Sasuke grimaced at the innuendo. "I've seen that woman before."

"Have you? I see. You two share the same taste in women? That's funny. I thought you were a homo."

Sasuke was served immediately. The woman had blue skin. She kept sending him flirtatious looks, but he was too annoyed to even grace her with a half-smile. Even though it would've ended in good service all night long.

"What I _meant _is that she's no ordinary prostitute," he said, sneering.

"Oh? Isn't she? Ah, yes. I think I do recall her being connected to some rather interesting incidents involving customers turning up dead. I should've guessed she wasn't interested in him for his looks or his pen-"

Sasuke held up his hand. "I'm not interested in hearing about your relationship with Naruto."

Sai edged in between Sasuke and the stool next to him. "You look familiar," he said and rubbed his chin. "Sasuke is it?"

Sasuke said nothing.

"Yes, I'm sure I've seen your face somewhere before. Or… do you have a brother by chance?"

The glass Sasuke was holding shattered, and beer spilled over the counter.

Sai smirked and tilted his head. "I wonder how Naruto's doing in there?"

* * *

><p>"No, no wait," Naruto cried drunkenly as he fell on top of the bed. "I'm savin' myself for Cecilie."<p>

"Cecilie?" The prostitute whispered in his ear. "She doesn't work here anymore. I'm Kin."

Naruto felt the woman's long black hair stroke his skin. She'd blindfolded him with a red silk scarf and tied him to the bed after coaxing him out of the cloak, his shirt, boots, and pants. He could smell her floral perfume. Her breath was warm against his skin as she nuzzled his neck. He tried to touch her, but the rope kept him in place. What was it about today and being tied up?

"I can be your new favorite," Kin said as she traced his jaw with a fingernail

"I dunno," he said, feeling dizzy from the smell of her perfume. "She did this amazing thing with her tongue."

"I can do that, too. For a price, of course."

"Hmm?"

She straddled his waist, and her thighs snuggly pressed against his sides. "Don't get tired on me now, sweetie, we have all night."

Naruto yawned. "I don't know why I'm so…" he yawned again. "So sleepy."

"Maybe you'll be more comfortable once I take these off?" her fingers curled under the waistband of his underwear, and she tugged them off. "Oh. Big boy!"

Naruto's grin was lazy as that went straight to his ego. "Well, you know…"

The weight abruptly lifted off his body.

"Where you goin'," he asked as he heard Kin slide off of the bed.

"I just want to get myself prepared for you," she sing-songed.

"Oh yeah? That's something I wouldn't mind watchin'." He flexed his toes in anticipation.

"You're such a dirty boy, Naruto."

Naruto suddenly frowned. "Hey, how do you know my - "

Before he could finish, there was a loud slam as the door opened and banged against the wall. Startled, Naruto started to get up but was pulled back by the ropes. He'd forgotten about being tied to the bed. He heard Kin shriek. Something dropped on the floor. There was a loud crash as something hit the wall and fell with a thump to the floor. Then something soft touched his stomach, and he was straddled again.

"Kin? What the hell was all that?"

Breath fanned hotly over his collarbone, neck, and then at curve of his jaw. He turned his head.

"What's going on?" he asked.

The blindfold was removed and he found himself staring into Sasuke's face, their mouths only inches apart.

"Don't look so disappointed."

Naruto glanced to the side to see Kin lying in a heap, a knife nearby her unconscious body.

"Kin Tsuchi," Sasuke nodded at the girl. "She has a reputation of luring in customers, drugging them, and then slitting their throats so she can take their money."

Naruto closed his eyes and inhaled through his nostrils, making them flare.

"Ah, the perfume. Explains why I felt dizzy." He opened his eyes and stared. "You saved me again?"

Sasuke smirked.

"Say, Sasuke?"

"Hm?" Sasuke appeared a little too smug for Naruto's liking.

"Since you're already here, can you help a guy out? I mean, you did just knock out my prostitute, and I haven't gotten laid in a long time."

Sasuke's expression went blank, but then he smiled. Naruto had never seen him smile like this before, and the sight was rather disarming. Sasuke touched Naruto's face gently with his gloved hand and stroked his long, graceful fingers along his jaw. He grabbed hold of Naruto's chin and leaned in closer.

Naruto had been kidding, of course, but he found himself licking his lips.

"I see that your wounds have healed," Sasuke commented as he touched Naruto's shoulder in the spot where he'd been shot two weeks ago.

Sasuke went back to stroking his cheek. With his lips parted, he tilted Naruto's face upward as his other hand trailed lower - down Naruto's chest, over his ribs. It stopped at his waist.

"Would you like that?" Sasuke whispered, and their mouths were so very close. "Should I wrap my hand around you and make you moan like that whore was going to do?"

Naruto shivered and shifted underneath him. "I can't say a guy in my position has a right to be picky."

"If you ever quit being a starfighter pilot, maybe you should take up being a poet."

Sasuke sat up and sneered, giving Naruto only seconds before he felt the punch land across his cheekbone. The pain was explosive and made it feel like his eye was going to pop out of the socket. Sasuke jumped off of him and picked up the cloak.

Sai appeared in the doorway with a huge grin.

"He's all yours," Sasuke said to him as he left the room.

"No, no. Wait! Sasuke! I was only kidding! Get these ropes off of me! No, don't leave me with this guy, he's more sadistic than you are! _Sasuke_!"

He had a feeling he might've pissed Sasuke off, and there was a good chance there would be no ship for him to return to whenever he got out of this situation.

"Sai," he said as his friend approached him. "We're pals, right? You'll undo these ropes?"

"Oh sure," said Sai as he sat on the edge of the bed. He glanced at the girl on the floor. "You never learn, do you?"

"Oh what, like you wouldn't have let her tie you up?" He wiggled his wrists. They were starting to chafe.

"I don't know how Sasuke puts up with you."

"Why are you on his side? And do you mind untying me so I can put my clothes back on? It's starting to get cold in here."

Sai slapped his thigh hard. "I can tell."

"Ow, that stings, you bastard!"

Sai shook his head and got up from the mattress. "No. I think this scenario suits you very well. Now all we need to do is find a gag."

Naruto groaned. "I'm gonna remember this, Sai. Until my dying day!"

"Good," said Sai. "I wouldn't have it any other way."


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke was annoyed. When he got annoyed, he needed to do things with his hands or else he would end up using them to strangle someone. Perhaps a certain blond starfighter pilot, who had returned extremely inebriated at a very late hour. As in, the sun was just about to rise when he came in clanging through the corridor of the living deck. So, Sasuke got up, and he showered. He went into town to order a few weeks' supply of food portions. Also, after meeting with one of his most trusted (and expensive) informants, he'd come across some interesting information, and if he could manage the repairs promptly enough, there was a rendezvous point he needed to get to at the end of the next two weeks.

For the time being and so that he wouldn't have to see Naruto's face for a while, he set up a hydraulic ladder on the outside of the ship so that he could do some work on a few exterior panels that had come loose after their latest hyperdrive fiasco. A droid assisted him with the required tools. He wore a pair of protective goggles as he welded the metal sheets into place. The blowtorch was loud, so he put in some ear plugs, and, in this way, he was able to block out the entire world.

He felt troubled, and he didn't like feeling troubled. The loss of his crew had affected him somewhat, and that made him question the uncertain depths of his sentimentality. What happened next was, he transferred these feelings of insecurity to anger. Anger that he could easily direct toward Naruto. It was Naruto's fault his ship was a mess, Naruto's fault that he'd been involved in a scene at Spike's, Naruto's fault he'd had to requisition a larger amount of food than normal, and... just... everything was Naruto's fault! It made him feel unbalanced having him on the ship. He was a stranger, wasn't he? For all Sasuke knew, maybe he was a spy for the Syndicate. Except, that bit of information he'd overheard at the arms dealers' yesterday had validated the destruction of an entire shuttle fleet carrying political officials as well as their starfighter escorts. But that didn't mean Naruto was who he said he was... maybe Naruto had been part of the crew sent to attack? And being the idiot that he was, wasn't able to escape without destroying his own starfighter. It would also explain why only weeks after he'd come aboard that they'd run across Deidara, an elite ex-member of the Enforcers.

He wasn't sure. He was confused, although maybe he shouldn't be given that Naruto was hardly the scheming type. He was a mechanic, a pilot, an electrician even, but in no way was he a brilliant tactician.

For now, Sasuke chose to give up thinking in favor of getting lost in his work and focusing on nothing but the blue flame of the torch and the way it welded the panels perfectly to the hull. It was mindless, tedious work, and he loved it. It was in these brief moments that he could forget about all he needed to do, about his past, his future. And he had goals, okay, goals that he wasn't going to let someone like Naruto get in the way of. Because Naruto had become a burden, hadn't he? And Sasuke wouldn't allow himself to be dragged down by an empty-headed starfighter pilot.

* * *

><p>Naruto woke with a pounding headache and swollen eyes that came as a consequence of vomiting in an alley behind a rubbish bin for a good hour. It wasn't alcohol, it was that potent stuff in the prostitute's perfume. He'd had no idea when Sai abandoned him, but he was used to that guy coming and going as he pleased. Somehow, and he was honestly surprised about this, he'd managed to return to the ship without anyone brutally assaulting or trying to mug him. The streets had been dark, and he'd still been feeling weak and sick. He'd tripped over something in the corridor outside his cabin and fell face first onto the floor. He thanked the higher forces that Sasuke hadn't been around to see that. He'd basically crawled his way into his bed, passing out only after he heard Sasuke leave his cabin. Naruto didn't have the strength to wonder where he was going so early in the morning.<p>

But now that he was up, he - at a _very _slow pace - got into the shower, where he curled up in a corner. Little chunks of vomit had stuck to his hair, and he watched it all go down the drain.

"Yeah, that's hot, Naruto," he said to himself, shaking his head side to side underneath the spray. "No wonder I haven't gotten laid in weeks. Women love a bit of vomit in the hair."

He sat there for a long time, thinking on all that Sai had told him last night. About what he knew regarding the attack on the shuttle fleet and his fellow fighters. He folded his hands between his knees, put his head back, and sighed. The water cascaded over his face. He couldn't stop thinking about his flight mates, about the conversations and jokes they'd shared at the substation before taking off for the escort mission, or even the few words they'd exchanged over the com-link minutes prior to being attacked. Throughout his time on this ship with Sasuke, he'd been too preoccupied to truly grieve for them.

He'd lost so many people in his life, yet he'd been the sole survivor of a terribly tragic incident once again. When the people he cared about continued to die one by one.

Was it a curse? He didn't know.

All he had to work with was a name and a location, but that would have to be enough to lead him to a path where his friends' deaths could be avenged.

* * *

><p>"You know, for a pilot, you make a terrible wingman." Naruto was standing on the boarding ramp; Sasuke was exchanging tools with an assistant droid on the ladder platform when he noticed Naruto's presence.<p>

"What?"

"Knockin' out that poor prostitute? You're a bit of a cockblock, Sasuke."

Sasuke shook his head. "If that's an attempt at gratitude, I think you can do better."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I probably can. I guess I'm just a bit embarrassed that you're constantly saving my ass."

"If you're so tired of it, why don't you work a little harder not to be such a nuisance."

Naruto hopped off the boarding ramp to the garage floor and watched as Sasuke re-ignited the torch. Apparently, while Naruto had been in the shower crying like a baby over his dead comrades, Sasuke had been hard at work repairing the duralloy plates.

Really, he might've asked Naruto for help since he could weld plates in his sleep. He supposed there were two reasons Sasuke hadn't bothered. Either he was being considerate and let Naruto sleep in, or he really didn't want to be in Naruto's company. Not that they'd known each other long, but judging from what he knew of Sasuke so far, he'd have to go with the latter.

He threaded his fingers behind his head. A part of him wanted to insist that Sasuke let him help. He wanted to be useful, dammit! But the look on Sasuke's face was strange today, so he didn't want to push too hard. Just call it a gut feeling. Naruto glanced around the garage. There weren't any attendants in sight, but it wouldn't be surprising if Sasuke had run them all off.

"What are you doing?"

Startled, Naruto looked up, blinked, and let out an awkward laugh. "Uh. Nothing. Just... nothing, yeah. I didn't mean to interrupt. You're obviously hard at work, so..."

"I can take a break. I'm about done here."

Naruto raised a skeptical brow. There were still several gaps remaining in the exterior panels that needed to be replaced, and a pile of damaged plates lay in a heap under the platform.

"For today," Sasuke elaborated. "I'm waiting on some extra plates to arrive tomorrow."

Naruto nodded. "Lunch?"

Sasuke removed his goggles and ran his fingers through his hair. There was a smudge on his right cheek. "Yeah."

"Want to go into town?"

The platform began to lower as Sasuke handed over the tools to the droid, who inserted them into a compartment in its chest. There was a crease between his brows. Naruto had never seen him this distracted.

"Sasuke?"

The platform leveled with the ground, and Sasuke stepped off, removing his worker gloves.

"Hm?" He came and stood in front of Naruto. "What's with that stupid look you keep having on your face?"

Naruto frowned. "I could say the same about you."

Sasuke's eyebrow ticked. "I have a stupid look on my face?"

"No, not stupid, but..." He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I can cook something in the mess hall. I see you picked up food portions." Naruto grinned and gave Sasuke's arm a light slap and affected a perky woman's voice, "You were quite the busy bee today, weren't you?"

The corner of Sasuke's lip twitched.

Naruto laughed and put a hand on Sasuke's back to usher him inside the ship. "C'mon. Let's eat and have a beer. You'll feel better in no time."

Sasuke pushed his arm away as they walked up the ramp. Naruto continued to grin at his back. Teasing Sasuke had to be the best thing in the world. He felt better already. Naruto sighed a contented sigh as he gave another glance around the empty garage and then, humming, jogged after Sasuke in the hopes of finding more opportunities to bug him.

* * *

><p>The next day, Sasuke awoke early, having been expecting a delivery of the duralloy plates. Outside of his cabin, Naruto was waiting in a shirt and a pair of overalls, with some sort of black rag tied at the back of his head.<p>

"Oh good," he said sarcastically. "Are you here to clean the toilets? My maid ran out the other day, so I'm so glad you're here."

"Ha ha, very funny," said Naruto, adjusting the rag. "I'm here to help you weld the new plates."

"Really? Are you sure you don't want to break more parts of my ship first?"

"Oh, shut up. If this is about the hyperdrive, it wouldn't have worked at all if it weren't for my adjustments and - "

"We wouldn't have been targeted at all had you not made such an idiot of yourself with all that unnecessary babbling you tend to do."

Naruto groaned. "This again? So, what? You're gonna blame me for the fact that you had some sort of debts to that guy that he felt the need to attack you in the middle of neutral space?"

"You know what? Maybe I _will _blame you for that, as well." Sasuke pushed him in the chest, making Naruto take a few steps back.

"If you weren't smirking at me like that, I'd probably think you were serious."

"Oh, I am." Sasuke's face went theatrically blank. "I'm very serious."

Naruto cracked a grin. "You're so full of it."

Sasuke's mouth quirked. "Less talking, more fixing my ship. Now we'll clearly see who her favorite is." He started down the corridor. Naruto chased after him until he was walking at his side.

"You jealous?" Naruto gave him a sidelong look as he bumped into Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke's eyes glowed with humor. "Hardly."

* * *

><p>That night the two of them were sitting at the table in the mess hall, dirty, sweaty, and smelling like they'd just crawled out of the ship's septic disposal unit. Naruto pulled his bandana off of his head.<p>

"See," he pointed to his hair. "And that's is why I wear this damn thing. Besides the fact it makes me look cool, it keeps my hair from getting dyed by all that grease and dirt."

"How very modest."

"You just don't appreciate how rare it is to have this color of hair. I could dump a whole bucket of grease on your head and no one would be the wiser, right? Except if it got on your face. You're so damn pale. I should've made you go outside today."

Sasuke twisted off the cap of his beer bottle. "I'd have to buy a leash first before I'd let you go into town again."

"C'mon. You must've had a little fun. What's the point of being a pirate if you don't engage in a little hand-to-hand combat every once in a while? You might get rusty."

"Unlike you, I have no desire to draw attention to myself."

"Boo," Naruto pouted. "I think you probably attracted plenty of attention to yourself when you kicked that door open and threw that hooker against the wall."

"I did not _throw_her," Sasuke corrected. "She was about to pull a knife on you, and so I grabbed her by the neck and gently tossed her to the side."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, I bet. _Gently_, huh? You're about as gentle as a Vulpian dwarf."

"Uh huh. And you've run into one before?"

"Sure." Naruto nodded. "On my home planet. Not the one where I was born, the one I come from now."

"And that is?"

"Can't tell you that just yet."

Sasuke picked at the label on the bottle. "So did Sai offer any new information regarding the incident with your friends?"

Naruto glanced away. "Uh. No. Not really. He's unreliable like that sometimes."

"_Liar_."

Naruto looked at him, surprised. "What makes you say that?"

"You're lousy at lying. You'd be a terrible card player. No poker face whatsoever."

"Yeah, well." Naruto grabbed the beer from Sasuke's hand and took a swig. "Good thing I'm not much of a betting man. Unlike you, who wins a ship in a game of sabacc."

"It wasn't sabacc."

"Doesn't matter." He passed Sasuke back his beer.

Sasuke held out his hand to stop him. "You take it."

Naruto shrugged. "So... you weren't able to find a new mechanic?"

"No. All of the qualified ones were already committed to other projects."

"You know," Naruto drawled out his words. "I'm not a bad mechanic."

"Listen, Naruto - "

Naruto put up his hands, looking embarrassed. "It's cool. I understand. But, just, there's somewhere I need to get to, so if it's on your way to wherever you're going, um, maybe at least take me as far as that?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed as he watched Naruto spin the amber-colored bottle in circles. "Where?"

"Maecenas."

Sasuke sat back in his chair, his fingernails digging into his palm. "Which part?"

"The west station."

"Why?"

"There's someone I want to talk to there," answered Naruto.

Sasuke raised his eyes; Naruto's expression remained determined, hopeful.

"What do you know?"

Naruto appeared puzzled by the question. "What do you mean?"

Sasuke shook his head. "...Nevermind. I can take you as far as that."

"You can?"

"Yes," Sasuke sad as he reached across the table and snatched the beer away. He drank very slowly.

"Is it really on your way?" asked Naruto. "I mean, it'll take about two weeks, right? Unless you wanna risk using the hyperdrive, but if you give me a week, I can fix it so the propulsion system won't give and blow up another engine."

"It's on the way," Sasuke spoke with suspicion in his voice, "Because I was already planning on heading to that system."

"Really?" Naruto rubbed his chin. "That's weird, huh. What a coincidence!"

"You're truly a natural at being an idiot, aren't you?" Sasuke got up from the chair, his hand gripping the edge of the table. "We leave tomorrow," he said, his voice a harshly whispered command. He left the mess hall, ignoring the way Naruto called after him, and hurried toward his cabin.

* * *

><p>On the second night after having left Quintana, Naruto awoke to flashing red lights and the sound of a shrill alarm. Half-dressed, he ran to Sasuke's cabin, but when the doors opened, he wasn't there. The databoard on his desk, however, highlighted the navigation route, and it looked as though the Accipiter was in the direct path of a large field of fast-moving asteroids.<p>

"Oh shit!" Naruto ran out of Sasuke's cabin and headed toward the cockpit, where once he opened the doors, he saw Sasuke frantically flipping all the overhead switches.

"Shields at maximum," informed the computer.

Sasuke activated the peripheral viewscreens as he clutched the navigation controls.

"We're in the fucking middle of an asteroid storm?" Naruto balked. "How the hell did that happen?"

"Apparently the force of gravity on one of the nearby planet's has been fluctuating due to tectonic instability."

Naruto got into the co-pilot seat.

"Put on your belt," Sasuke ordered. "This is going to get bumpy."

Just as he said that, an asteroid swiped the side of the ship and made it rock turbulently to the side.

"No kidding." Naruto strapped himself in as Sasuke tried to manually navigate them through the storm. Large chunks of the asteroids broke off as they smashed into one another at random.

Another gigantic asteroid split and went crashing into the stern of the ship. A computerized alert informed them that the sensor system had just taken significant damage. Sasuke reached across the controls to turn it off.

"Shut up, I know," he yelled at the computer.

All Naruto could do was watch. Sasuke, he knew, was a perfectly capable pilot.

"What the hell is going on with the surface of that planet to cause a pull like this?" he asked.

"The Syndicate's been drilling on it lately, and it must've re-arranged the mantle so that now all the plates are shifting and causing all sorts of natural disasters."

"What, like earthquakes?"

"No, blizzards," snapped Sasuke. "_Yes_, earthquakes. And if the Syndicate keeps digging up that planet for its precious new alloys, it's going to wipe out all the aliens down there doing the government's dirty work."

"Surely even the Syndicate is going to send reinforcements to the planet. There's no way the politicians would allow for aliens they contracted to be killed, right?"

Sasuke laughed at him, even though they'd barely avoided hitting another asteroid fragment. "You think they care about cheap alien labor?"

"They should if they wanna get re-elected. Just because whatever alloy is a cheaper resource than the duralloy doesn't mean they need to go planet to planet, destroying its resources in order to turn a quick buck! Especially if it's at the expense of the alien labor force!"

Sasuke turned to him and glared. "Wake up, you idiot! Those politicians you and your flight mates were guarding were killed _because_they were part of a growing minority working to stop the drilling."

"Wait?" Naruto's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull. "How do you know that?"

"What, your creepy friend didn't tell you? Or have you just not read a single news source since you crawled out of your starfighter?"

"No, I mean... I guess I haven't," Naruto stammered. "Sai only told me about a man he thought might know who was responsible. That if I went to see him, he'd be able to tell me - "

"And you're meeting this person at the west post in Maecenas? Who is it?"

"He goes by the name White Fang. That's all I know."

"The White Fang is dead," said Sasuke. "He killed himself years ago, there's no way that's the guy you're looking for."

"I'm sure that's what Sai said."

Sasuke shook his head but was distracted by another oncoming asteroid that only missed a direct hit to the hull by a few meters.

"Fucking shit, and after all those repairs we did," Sasuke grumbled.

The storm started to dissipate in intensity once they managed to navigate their way through the crumbling debris at the edges of the asteroid belt. They were hit with a few more powerful waves of turbulence that had left them both tense. Eventually, the direct route in front of them cleared. They both seemed to sigh in relief at the same time.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Did you know the White Fang?"

"No," Sasuke answered as he checked the computer system for the damage report. "But," he looked at Naruto. "I know of his son."

"His son?" asked Naruto.

"Kakashi Hatake. Now take the controls."

"Why?" Naruto unlatched his belt and slipped into the pilot's seat when Sasuke got up. "Where are you going?"

"To put on my flight suit. Damage reports show the deflector shield generator is hanging by a thread out there."

"You're seriously going to go out there now? What if we get hit by a wave of asteroid remnants from the storm?"

"We don't have a choice!" shouted Sasuke. "Do you think we could make it through another storm without any way to generate a shield? Or what if we cross paths with a hostile craft? Do you think you'll be able to talk your way out of that one as well as you did the last time? Please, Naruto, if you have a better idea, I'll be very happy to hear it."

"Let _me_go then," said Naruto. "It's way too risky."

Sasuke walked to the doors. As they opened, he turned around to glare at him. "It's_my_ ship! _I'll_ be the one to do this. Just try to keep the ship from getting caught in another storm. Do you _think _you can handle that?"

Naruto nodded, his mouth thin with worry. "I can."

Sasuke was almost into the corridor when Naruto called for him to wait.

"What?" asked Sasuke, without turning around.

"Be careful."

The doors finally closed, and Naruto was left with a very bad feeling.


	5. Chapter 5

Already in his flightsuit, Sasuke was just attaching the com-link to his ear.

"Naruto," he said into it.

"I'm here."

"I'm about to open the docking gate."

"Sasuke, I still think this is stupid. The computer is showing several clusters of debris out there."

"_Naruto_," Sasuke repeated irritably, holding his helmet against his side. "If you want me to keep this com-link in my ear, you will shut up and fly the ship like I asked you."

"But - "

Sasuke was about to pull the ear piece out, but Naruto relented.

"Fine, fine. I won't say anything. Keep it in so I can at least monitor if something goes wrong."

"Nothing will go wrong. I've spacewalked before."

"Not after an asteroid storm, I'm sure," Naruto muttered.

"I'll be done in less than two hours." He cut his side of the link for now, making it clear the conversation was over. He put on his helmet and hit the button to for the oxygen release, waiting a few minutes since the oxygen had a tendency to fog the helmet visor. Lastly, he turned on the gravity so nothing would fly out the gate once it opened.

Sasuke gave instructions to one of the droids as they worked to connect his restraint vest to his flightsuit. The vest would connect to a heavy cable within the ship in case he was knocked from one of the various platforms or ladders on the exterior. Just outside of the docking gate was a narrow catwalk that led to a ladder and then another catwalk. As he proceeded, the droid released more of the cable. Uncoiled, it ran the entire length of the ship. Every once in a while, he heard Naruto make an annoying comment, but mostly he was just informing Sasuke of anything and everything showing up on the radar field.

Even from the first platform, Sasuke could see extensive damage. Several pieces of the duralloy had loosened - not the ones they'd repaired in the garage - but definitely some of the older sheets. It wasn't a high priority, but if they took on more damage, it might lead to something serious. As he climbed the second ladder, he discovered the shield generator was in worse condition than he'd anticipated, and he was glad he'd come out himself instead of sending a droid with only intermediate mechanical skills. He should really stop being cheap and invest in some upgrades for them, but he went through droids like Naruto went through the stock of beer in the refrigerator.

If only droids were also sold in six packs, how convenient would the galaxy be.

Carefully, he climbed the top steps of the ladder and onto the platform right below where the generator was located. There were three metal rungs above his head that he would need to use to get closer. His footing wouldn't be as stable, but there was a latch where he could connect a different cable to allow him a freer range of movement. Not that he'd ever done it before, but there were people he'd known that - for sport - would take trips to mountainous planets in order to do climbing like this. Without ropes. In fact, one of them was the very guy Naruto was hoping to meet.

Kakashi often was mistaken for the White Fang because lesser-informed people didn't know any better, and because the reputation of the White Fang had always been famous (read: profitable) among pirates, Kakashi didn't bother to correct anybody. Why should he? He was that type of guy. Kakashi Hatake was a dangerous person that came off as lazy, indifferent, sarcastic bastard, but when it came down to it - that guy was sharp. He had a nose for trouble, and he had his own informants dispatched a little bit of everywhere - the Syndicate, pirates, merchants, traders, smugglers, and probably even the Enforcers. But his information did not come cheap, and he had only one weakness, which is why Sasuke could get away with not paying for a little bit of sensitive information here and there: on enemies, competition, and certain family member's activities he liked to keep a close eye on if he could manage it.

Looking at it now, the actual shield portion of the generator was intact except a single crack on the top of the shell. It was nothing that couldn't be fixed with some special plaster and a torch. Probably wasn't even necessary to fix it as it was merely cosmetic. But in case it should crack further, he went ahead and spattered on the plaster. When combined with some oxide powder it fused together like cement. Just to make sure it hardened as quickly as possible, he ran the torch over it, too. The light blue flame danced in the plastic tubing he'd attached so that it would be able to ignite when out in space. Another one of his many modifications. It made him wonder whether he should've grown up to be a scientist rather than a pirate.

But being a scientist wouldn't have been half as fun.

The prattling Naruto was doing in his ear in the meantime made him smirk. He was relaying an idiotic story about some woman or other he'd worked with during another escort mission.

"And that's when I realized she'd dyed her eyebrows," is how Naruto finished the story.

Sasuke shook his head. There were two things Naruto had ever-present on his brain: spaceships and sex. And, yes, in that order. It's what made him worry so much about the virtue of his beloved Accipiter. It was a combination of two of Naruto's obsessions, which is why his off-the-wall comments about the ship tended to make Sasuke insanely and unreasonably jealous. Sasuke was indifferent when it came to sex. Not as in he wasn't interested. It was more like others weren't interesting enough for him to be interested in sex _with_ them. He'd been _drawn _to people. Usually those he aspired to be like in some way, but occasionally he was drawn to those who stood out. Were a bit different in the head. No wait, those people were distracting and a nuisance. If he lived with his head in the clouds, he'd have died repeated deaths. That's not how one lived long in this age - depending on another person.

Crap. Why was reattaching the main wiring from the cone of the shield to the latched panel of the ship making him wax philosophical?

"Sasuke, would you say it's funny if I said you were spacing out on me?"

Sasuke shut his eyes and inhaled. He put away one of his tools for a moment so that he could turn his link back on.

"Are you ever going to shut up and let me concentrate?"

"Oh, you're there. Luckily that suit shows your life signs or I would've pegged you for dead."

"If only I were so lucky."

"So what's the situation out there with the generator?"

"Have you ever seen a newborn with its umbilical cord cut?"

"Um. No?"

"Well it's like that."

"You're sick, y'know that?" Naruto asked in a way Sasuke was able to tell he was grinning.

Sasuke couldn't help a small laugh. "It's manageable. It'll take longer than I thought. Maybe three hours. Some of the wire endings are fried, I think because the impact of the collisions caused a short-circuit in two of the joint-breakers. I can do the repairs, but as to whether the shield will be generated, we won't know until we try."

"I see. Well make sure you make her nice and pretty for me. I know she's yours and all so I don't mind seconds, but I sure don't like 'em sloppy, Sasuke."

"You're hilarious," he said dryly.

"I have my moments."

"Well, I look forward to seeing them one day."

"Touché." Naruto chuckled. "Okay, well I'll let you do your thing. There's another cluster at about 4 o'clock, running parallel to the port side of the ship."

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder. In the far distance he could see a train of comment fragments zipping through space like they'd been shot from a particle accelerator. He watched them with a wary eye, but as they didn't pose an immediate threat, he returned to the repairs.

* * *

><p>When Naruto got nervous, he fidgeted. He'd get up and pace. He'd poke around at things or pull at his hair or start a whole routine of calisthenics just to burn off the excess energy. Hell, he'd probably even pull out a few yoga moves in the center of the cockpit if it would calm him down.<p>

He had tried to keep Sasuke entertained with the stupidest anecdotes he could think of and was glad to hear the other man laughing. It put him more at ease if someone like Sasuke felt everything was under control. Still, it would've made him feel better had he let Naruto go out there. He'd said and thought over and over again how brilliant Sasuke was as a technician and mechanic, but Naruto would bet his life he could do it faster, and, dammit, he owed Sasuke his life, didn't he? The guy had already saved him twice.

All this as he was doing a set of sit-ups on the floor. After every time he rose up - his stomach trembling as he held the position for 20 seconds at a time - he'd crane his neck to check the ship perimeter for anything dangerous. If Sasuke hadn't been so hot-tempered, they could've at least moved further away from the storm than their current coordinates. Not that it would take Sasuke long to retract the cables and get his ass into the ship so that they could jump to warp if necessary.

Although, as he thought about this, he considered he was sort of jealous. Having watched Sasuke pilot through the asteroid storm without breaking a sweat gave him quite the mental hard on. Yeah, he said it. He questioned it, but it was true. Sasuke excited him. He'd met some good pilots in his day. He'd had parents who'd both been stellar pilots, but they had died when he was so young that he only had fuzzy memories of sitting in starfighter cockpits or poking around at the engines of battered freighters his dad would refurbish. He'd flown with great starfighter pilots for sure, he'd befriended pirates here and there, this one guy Gaara coming to the forefront of his mind. But flying beside Sasuke as he piloted - shit, what a fucking rush! He wanted to get Sasuke into a starfighter or on a speeder bike and race him through the canyons or even the woods on his home planet. What a trip!

Yeah, he was a freak, because the thought was gonna give him a boner soon. Okay, that's one thing he wasn't gonna inform Sasuke about through the com-link. He'd punch him through the port window.

"Calm yourself, Uzumaki. You're a grown man," he assured himself. "Stop thinking about boys and their toys."

"…What?"

Oh right. The com-link was still on. "Uh, what did you say, Sasuke? There's some static happening with the link. You okay? I bet the asteroids are causing interference."

"Sure. Right."

Naruto shut his eyes and clapped his hand to his forehead. _I am such an idiot_. More sit-ups, that's what he needed to do. All this time on the ship was making certain parts of him feel jigglier than normal. He cupped his pecs.

"Breasts," he said aloud as he squeezed them, again forgetting about the link.

"Naruto."

"Y-yes?" he asked, grinning widely.

"Are you feverish?"

"No..."

"Do you see a rash anywhere on your body?"

"Um. No. Why?"

"I was just curious if you were coming down with a case of Space Hysteria."

Naruto laughed aloud, clutching his stomach. "Ha ha, yeah. Well, I think if I had that, all the blood would've shot to my brain and my head would've exploded by now."

"Pardon? Your blood would have shot where now?"

"My brain?" Naruto cocked his head. "Oh. Oh I see what you did there. You are a man of jokes, you are."

"Maybe I should give stand up a try."

"Do or do not. There is no try, Sasuke. Those are great words to live by."

"And who said that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Dunno. Ancient, ancient ancestors of this old guy from my home planet. Or so he claimed, as that was a bajillion years ago, and pretty sure they're not even in the same species. Both green and wrinkly though."

"What the hell are you on about? Check the sensors and see if you can do a test on the input going into the joint-breaker up here. I think it's going into one board but not the other, and the output has nowhere to go."

Naruto rested a hand on his stomach, rubbing it over his abs. "Where do you think I learned all my awesome combat skills? I'm sure you thought I was born with the natural talent to kick multiple people's asses at once, but I did have some pretty skilled mentors along the way."

"Fascinating. The sensors?"

Naruto sighed. "I'm trying to let you get to know me here. I'm letting you in, you should try it some time." He did as he was told and cross-checked the sensor panels on that particular area of the ship.

"Unlike you, I'm not in the habit of wanting to bore others to death."

"My stories aren't boring, they're the stuff of legends you pass down from generation to generation, like that really ancient poem Earth had about the guy who went around with a ship full of other guys after some big war. Not a ship, but well, just a wooden thing that floated on water. Can you believe they call that a ship...?"

"You're babbling," said Sasuke. "Are you running the tests?"

"Yes, I am." He took a look at what the controls were indicating. "It appears that there's a bad electrical block in one of the segments leading to the left breaker. In fact," he got closer to the control board, squinting at it, "It looks like - "

A loud explosion went off somewhere on the ship. He could feel it more than he could hear it, so it must've been relatively contained. The lights and computerized alerts went on simultaneously as the control board flashed to show one of the breakers had blown and an electrical fire near the fuel line had caused some sort of meltdown.

It happened all within seconds, and, it was only after he'd noted the location of it to be near Sasuke that he became aware the com-link had gone dead.

"Sasuke?" he asked, his voice calm at first. "Sasuke?" It took on a higher pitch each time he called the other man's name and received no response. He checked the life support gauge on Sasuke's suit and saw that the heart monitor showed an increase in blood pressure and then before his eyes, it flatlined.

"Fucking shit!" Naruto switched the link to the droid. "Retract the cable. _Now_," he ordered.

The droid informed him that there was a snag in the cable. Naruto yanked the autopilot on, threw down the earpiece and ran like mad through the ship until he reached the docking gate. There were three spare suits by the doors, having belonged to the former crew. In less than 45 seconds, he was inside it with his helmet on. There wasn't enough time to secure everything, but he wasn't thinking. He went to the cable line and followed it out of the gate without being harnessed. All he had was the cable to hold on to, so if he got knocked from one of the platforms, he was dead. At the foot of the second ladder, he could see the generator, and Sasuke's limp body hanging from the platform by the thin cable. As he got to the platform, he saw that Sasuke's life signs were all at zero, and it had already been 8 minutes that his heart had stopped beating. He had to get him into the ship, but as he tried to get Sasuke's body on the platform, he realized that a narrow strip of paneling had been blown off and impaled Sasuke's left shoulder. When he rolled Sasuke over, he could see the end sticking out through the other side. He tried to tug it out, but it wouldn't budge, and he had no way of knowing if it had hit any vital arteries.

In a panic, he threw Sasuke over his shoulder, leapt onto the lower platform and, using the cable, jumped through the gate. He set Sasuke on the floor, took off his helmet and started unzipping the suit. He quickly ran for a knife on a nearby tool bench and had to cut a hole out of the suit where the shrapnel had gone through his chest.

As he took off the jacket, blood spurted out all over his hands and arms and onto Sasuke's front. It was like a fountain. Naruto put his hand on the wound and applied pressure. It was a lot, but he had to guess that the metal in Sasuke's body might actually be preventing more blood loss. Sasuke was pale, not breathing, no heartbeat. Naruto ordered a droid over to take his place while he started doing compressions and listening at Sasuke's mouth for any sound of breath before pinching his nose and trying to give him some of his own air. He listened again, but nothing. He didn't even know if Sasuke had any medical equipment on the ship that could be used to re-start his heart. Fucking hell. He looked around frantically and noticed a tool they often used to jump an engine of smaller craft. He went for it, yanking it from its post on the wall and tearing the rest of Sasuke's shirt off, he put it to his chest, turned the switch to low so as not to electrocute him or burn all his skin off. It charged, and there was a loud zap as Sasuke's body went a foot into the air. Nothing. There was nothing.

"Don't you die on me, you bastard!" Naruto cried as he turned up the charge and put the pads to Sasuke's chest again. "You said you could take care of it! You promised. You should've let me go!"

Another zap and another jolt to Sasuke's body. Naruto put his ear to Sasuke's mouth and swore there was some faint breath. He felt his neck for a pulse, but wasn't sure. He held his nose and breathed into him so hard that he thought he was gonna pass out when suddenly Sasuke started to choke and his eyes went wide as he stared at Naruto in horror and grasped his chest. His fingers curled around the edge of the metal going through his body.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. It's fine."

Sasuke's eyes obviously showed he didn't believe this and they soon started rolling back into his head until all Naruto could see were the whites.

"Oh fuck that, Sasuke! You're not gonna give up so easily. I swear I won't let you!" He turned up the machine another level and gave Sasuke's heart a third dose of electricity. "Breathe, damn you! Open your eyes!"

This time Sasuke let out a low-pitched, guttural scream of pain so awful that Naruto froze. He froze and terrible images passed before his eyes of previous friends that had died equally terrible deaths. He didn't know what happened next as he sort of blacked out for what felt like only seconds, but there was a blue light coming out of his hands when he came to, and suddenly Sasuke's chest was rising and falling. His face was no longer contorted in pain, but it looked only as though he were sleeping.

Naruto felt the bile rise up into his throat. He barely had time to turn his body away from Sasuke as he started vomiting. He wretched for so long his stomach cramped and he had to hunch over Sasuke's body since the support had gone from his limbs. Sasuke's fingers still clutched around the protruding fragment of plating. He could hear Sasuke's heartbeat. It was slow, but steady.

He hadn't lost him.

Something wet fell from Naruto's cheek.

Sasuke was alive. Sasuke was still here with him. So why couldn't he stop crying?

* * *

><p>Needless to say, the last four days had been very tense for Naruto. To get his mind off of things, he'd started a new project that he'd laid out across Sasuke's desk. While in Quintana, he'd had time to purchase a few electronic pieces that he could put toward an old invention his father had been working on before he died. He paused for a moment to look up from the magnifying lens he was using to create adjustments on a microchip. He set down the tweezers and glanced over at the bed where Sasuke lay. Four days and Sasuke hadn't woken once.<p>

When Sasuke'd stabilized after being shocked, Naruto had moved him to his cabin. Although he was afraid to attempt using the subspace radio again, he felt he had no choice but to contact the only person he knew could help. He had virtually no medical background, so he'd resorted to calling in a favor from Tsunade, a very _old_friend of the family. She instructed him on how to determine whether the metal had gone through a vital point. Apparently it hadn't, but there were definitely some broken ribs. He'd done stitches before (on himself), but not the kind where vessels had to be re-attached. Tsunade had been very patient with him, and even though his hands were shaking, it all managed to go fine. Sasuke had remained unconscious throughout, so it wasn't even necessary to anesthetize the area. What he owed Tsunade for this, he could only guess, but it wasn't going to be pretty.

Naruto hadn't slept much. Maybe a few hours a day, but they weren't necessarily consecutive. Sasuke had barely taken any water, and there were no IV bags on board the ship. If Sasuke didn't wake soon to eat or drink, he might die. In sleep, he looked a very troubled man, his brows constantly furrowed, the edges of his mouth turned into a deep frown. He tossed a little, as well. There had been no serious fever, so that meant no infections.

Naruto got up from the chair and stretched, scratching the front of his chest as he let out a yawn. He went to the side of the bed and sat, placing his hand on Sasuke's forehead.

"You know," he said. "I don't think I've ever done this for anybody. I mean, I know what it's like to have someone's life in your hands, but yeah. And this is after I've known you a _month_."

To think Sasuke had done it for him, and they'd been strangers. It gave him a lot of perspective. Naruto sighed and rechecked the bandages running around Sasuke's chest and under his armpits. Whether the other man liked it or not, Naruto had become rather familiar with his body after bathing him every day and dressing the wounds. There were a lot of scars on his back, a few on his torso, and a small black tattoo on his lower back that he didn't know the significance of. But all in all, Sasuke was - even in Naruto's opinion - rather beautiful. Not handsome or cute. Like he had very feminine features to his face? Naruto didn't know how to describe it, but figured his vulgar flight mates would've referred to him as a pretty boy. He guessed he'd never noticed because everything that came out of Sasuke's mouth was so… Well, so _Sasuke_. But when he wasn't able to glare or yell or insult, if he just lay here like this, sort of vulnerable and at Naruto's mercy...

"Hm."

He picked up Sasuke's hand and held it, running his thumb over the pulse. He'd tried pleading with him, he'd tried threatening him, and, well, he'd tried certain other stuff he would not prefer to list in his head.

But then, the hand in his squeezed back.

Naruto practically leapt onto the bed, his knees up against Sasuke's side.

"Sasuke? Hey, wake up! Can you hear me?" He glanced at his hand when it was squeezed again. "Is that you telling me you can hear me?" Another squeeze. "Open your eyes, alright? It's been a while, but c'mon and open 'em. Everything's alright now."

Sasuke's eyelids fluttered open and his mouth parted. He said something but Naruto couldn't make it out. He lowered his face nearer to Sasuke's. "Say that again."

"Water."

It was very faint, but Naruto heard it and started to get off of the bed when Sasuke squeezed his hand harder than before, stopping him. He looked into Sasuke's eyes. They were full of all kinds of questions that he was obviously far too weak to articulate. Naruto answered him with a reassuring smile.

"We'll talk when I get back, alright? Let me go get some water in the bathroom real fast. I promise I'll be right back."

Sasuke loosened his grip but still kept watching him with those eyes, like he'd woken in an alternate dimension or something. Naruto scrambled into the bathroom to fill a glass with water. He brought it to Sasuke, who tried to sit up, but Naruto held him down.

"Just lift your head, and I'll put it to your lips."

Sasuke glared, but as he wisely realized he had no other choice, complied. Naruto held the glass to his lips, and it was all gone within a matter of seconds, so he went to get another. By then, Sasuke was able to sit up a bit, but he had a difficult time speaking, so Naruto explained - with only _modest _detail - about what happened. Although he did leave out the part about the strange blue glow. Unnecessary details.

Sasuke kept touching the spot on top of the bandage where the metal had impaled him. He cleared his throat a couple of times and licked his lips, wanting very badly to speak, but when he did, it didn't quite come out loud enough. Sasuke grew frustrated until he motioned for something, and Naruto went to retrieve a pad for him on which he could write.

Sasuke flipped it to show him. _How long have I been out?_

"Four days," Naruto answered. Sasuke's eyes widened and his gaze shifted around the room. He picked up the pencil again, writing only briefly before showing it to Naruto.

Sasuke averted his eyes. _Thank you._

Naruto didn't bother trying to hide his surprise at these words of gratitude. "I owed you one after all. Except unlike you who left me in my own filth, I did take the liberty of being your sponge nurse." He jumped off the bed just in time. Sasuke made a lunge at his throat.

He laughed and waggled his finger where Sasuke couldn't reach. "Oh Sasuke, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

Sasuke glared and beckoned him over with his hand, mouthing the word, "Come."

"No way."

Sasuke beckoned him again. Naruto went to the side of the bed, thinking Sasuke was too much of an invalid to do anything, but Sasuke grabbed for his wrist and pulled so hard that Naruto flew over Sasuke and onto the other side of the bed, where he rolled hard against the wall. Sasuke's fingers were still digging into his wrist. Naruto, after shaking his head clear, looked over to find Sasuke smirking.

"What?" asked Naruto innocently. "It's not like I fondled anything while you were unconscious."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows and squeezed him so hard that his nails started to break skin.

"Ow, ow. I'm serious. It was all very medical, very sterile, very business-like. You should be very proud of what you've got going on," he licked his lips and laughed, "Down there."

"Thanks," Sasuke mouthed and dropped his hand on the bed.

They lay next to each other, staring at the ceiling. He heard Sasuke writing again on the notepad. _Why's it so cold?_

"Is it?"

Sasuke nodded, looking contemplatively at Naruto.

It's true that because of the leak in the fuel line, he'd turned life support to minimal, but it wasn't _that_cold, but there were goosebumps running all along Sasuke's arms. He tried to feel Sasuke's forehead, but his hand got slapped away.

"Stop being a baby. If you have a fever, it could mean the stitches are infected or something. I did what I could to sterilize the wound."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment before mouthing, "Okay."

Taking the opportunity, Naruto felt his forehead and cheeks for a temperature. They were a little warm, but it may have more to do with the fact he was weak and hadn't eaten. Sasuke was remarkably pliable as Naruto rechecked some of the bandages for any bleeding or signs of infection.

The fact that Sasuke only watched him was quite curious. He squinted at him suspiciously when he finished his examination. "And here I thought you just got impaled, but did you also experience some head trauma?"

Sasuke shook his head. He looked very tired. Naruto sighed, feeling a release of a lot of the tension he'd been holding in these past few days. There was a blanket bunched at the foot of the bed. He pulled it over the both of them and snuck an arm around Sasuke's waist. Sasuke startled slightly, snapping his head around to glare.

"Oh shut up, it's just for some extra body warmth."

Sasuke fidgeted, but a few minutes later he settled and closed his eyes. Naruto checked his pulse just to be sure he'd only fallen asleep. He put his chin on Sasuke's shoulder and snuggled closer, his fingers on Sasuke's side spread apart over the bandaging. His own body shifted with Sasuke's even breathing.

"Asshole," Naruto whispered against his skin. "If you scare me like that again, _I'll_ be the one to kill you." He chuckled when Sasuke's brows drew together. Naruto lowered himself back down in the bed, wrapping his arm around Sasuke's chest to make sure he stayed warm. Soon enough, he was also able to finally fall asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

When Sasuke woke in the bed to find Naruto's arms around his waist and his head pressed against his shoulder, he felt he had no other choice but to pick his bedmate up and throw him half way across the room, where, unluckily for him, a chair was there to break his fall.

"What. The _fuck_?" In a daze, Naruto looked all around the room as if there were some sort of invisible entity responsible for his displacement, but seeing only Sasuke, he came to the most obvious conclusion. Angry and scowling, Naruto got to his feet and leapt onto the bed, straddling Sasuke at the waist. He put his hands on either side of his head, pinning him down. "What the _hell _is the big idea, asshole?"

Of course, almost instantly he seemed to remember Sasuke's injuries and backed off.

"H-how are you feeling?"

"How is it that I throw you across the room after I wake up with you all over me, and now you're right back on top of me?" Sasuke's voice was still hoarse so it was rather difficult to yell like he wanted. Not to mention, it felt as if someone had ripped out the organs in his chest and filled the empty cavity with sandpaper. He winced.

"Hey, you don't look so good. Maybe you should take it easy?"

Sasuke glared and, while Naruto was leaning forward, grabbed hold of his throat in an attempt to strangle him. Naruto made a few choking noises as he scrambled to grip Sasuke's wrists and pull his hands away. He rolled off the side of the bed and jumped a few feet away to safety.

"Okay, okay." Naruto put his hands out in front of him. "You said you were cold. All I did was try to keep you warm. It's not like I was sticking my hands down your pants!"

"Why the fuck would you do that?"

Naruto grinned. "In case I wanted to take your temperature?"

"You're an idiot." He shut his eyes. "What the hell happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"I remember the asteroid storm. I remember the generator. I went to fix it, and you were yapping in my ear and then - "

"Hm. That's odd. I told you about what happened when you regained consciousness last night. Maybe you _did _experience head trauma, after all?" Naruto started pacing back and forth. "I mean, your heart stopped for a while, maybe the lack of oxygen did something?"

"Naruto."

"But you remember who I am, right?"

"Unfortunately," Sasuke mumbled, watching with some level amusement at how frantic Naruto was becoming in his anxiety.

Naruto ignored him. "When we get to the station, we'll find you a doctor, yeah?"

"Could you just shut up for a second? I've got a headache and your incessant rambling isn't helping."

"Okay." Naruto made like he was going to sit on the chair, but then apparently realized it'd been broken only minutes ago. "I can't believe I saved your life and you end up throwing me into a goddam chair."

"You were spooning me," Sasuke pointed out, but, right away, felt childish for saying it.

"I wasn't _spooning _you. I was casually pressed to your side. To prevent hypothermia or somethin'."

"With your arms around me like an octopus?"

Naruto sat on the corner of the desk and shook his head. "That doesn't make sense, I have two arms, not six."

"And I wish you had zero mouths. By the way, an octopus has eight arms. Moron."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "What are you, 12? You act like it's such a big deal I was touching you. Just to remind you, who do y'think wrapped your bandages and scrubbed you down when you'd bled all over yourself? I've seen your junk, alright? Get over it."

Sasuke snorted. "I don't care about _that_, I just..."

"Just what?"

He sighed again because the pain in his chest caused him to lose his train of thought. "Nevermind."

"Do you want anything? You need to eat. You haven't eaten in, like, four days, and I imagine you're thirsty, too."

Before Sasuke could respond, Naruto had already run into the bathroom. He returned with a glass of water, which he offered to Sasuke. "Here."

Sasuke eyed him for a few seconds before taking it. "...Thanks."

"No problem."

"So tell me again what happened even if you told me last night." Slowly, Sasuke tried to sit up, smacking Naruto's hand away and glaring at him when he tried to help.

"Uh, there was some sort of electrical buildup in the breakers, and there must have been a minor amount of sparking in the section of paneling close to where you were on the catwalk. The computer hadn't picked up the fracture in the nearby fuel line, and so, yeah. There was an explosion that went through the exterior and sent a fragment of the duralloy through your shoulder. If I would've warned you sooner, maybe it could've been avoided."

Sasuke couldn't help but shake his head at Naruto's ridiculousness. "Neither of us knew about it. Even if I had, I would've gone out there anyway. What about the repairs to the generator?"

"Luckily, they mostly stayed intact, but some bits are charred. We have shields, but they aren't able to hit maximum. I made some adjustments with the armaments to boost our offensive abilities just in case something should happen. In the meantime, I've been working on another project that might help."

"Project?"

Naruto picked up a microchip amidst a scattering of various tools and parts on the desk. He held it up to the light. "This. My dad started work on it a few years before he died, but he wasn't able to finish. I'd memorized the circuit schematics for it and picked up the parts when we were in Quintana."

"And?" he asked blandly. "What is it?"

"A cloaking chip." Naruto grinned proudly.

Sasuke only blinked at him.

"What's with that reaction?" Naruto grumbled, shaking the chip at him. "Do you _know_ what this can do? If I can mass produce these babies, I'll seriously be, like, the richest guy in the galaxy. It can be adapted to almost any type of ship's defense systems. It creates a _complete _invisibility field without requiring a large generator! It won't be just cruisers that can cloak themselves! Even starfighters could go invisible! Freighters, pods, land speeders!"

"I see."

"Great, well. Awesome." Naruto's bottom lip jutted out and crossed his arms against his chest like a kid who'd just had his favorite toy taken away.

"What did you want me to say?" Sasuke shifted in bed and leaned against the wall so that he could sit facing Naruto.

"I dunno. I guess," Naruto stared directly at him, searching for something but apparently not getting the reaction he desired. "Tch. Forget it."

"I'm sorry if you wanted a pat on the back or a parade in your honor."

"No, I should know not to expect that from you. Even when I risked my ass to save your life all I got was what's gonna be a lovely bruise after being thrown into furniture, which I'm sure you also expect me to fix."

"I do."

Naruto tossed the chip on the desk and headed for the door.

"You know," Sasuke said, and Naruto stopped. "I didn't ask for you to save me, and when you collapsed in my arms that night, I didn't expect anything. In fact, you've been nothing but a pain in my ass since you got here. I should've let that murdering prostitute do what she does best."

The instant he said it, Sasuke felt a twinge of regret, but he was careful to keep it from showing. Naruto's eyes had gone a little wider, his mouth pulled a bit tighter in the corners. He flipped Sasuke off and left the room with a mumbled, "Jackass."

Sasuke sighed and dragged his fingers over the bandaging wrapped so carefully around his chest. Why had he said all that when he actually felt grateful for what Naruto had done? He knew he'd be dead right now if it weren't for him, so why the fuck did he react that way over the stupid chip? What did Naruto expect, that they'd live on this ship together forever? So that he could just invent gadgets and chips and drink beer every night like they were some fucking _team_?

Flustered, Sasuke got up from the bed and went into the bathroom, where he peeled away the many strips of bandages. There were sutures, but it actually looked pretty well healed. He thought the scar would've been bigger. He touched it, watching himself in the mirror as he traced the thin line only centimeters from his nipple. He returned to the room and grabbed the tweezers, magnifying glass, and a razor blade from off the desk before going back into the bathroom, where, one by one, he began removing all 25 stitches.

* * *

><p>Just when Naruto thought he had a handle on Sasuke, the guy goes and acts like the biggest, stupidest BASTARD. Even so, that hadn't stopped Naruto from coming into the kitchen to make Sasuke something to eat. It's not as if he hadn't noticed how much thinner Sasuke had become over the past week. Naruto sulked. Did Sasuke not realize how much that accident had scared the shit out of him? To see him lifeless on the floor, bleeding out of his mouth and ears and -<p>

Naruto closed his eyes as he stirred the soup, simultaneously thinking about his fallen comrades. He was reminded of the upcoming meeting with this Kakashi guy. What was the connection between he and Sasuke, and why hadn't Naruto ever heard of him?

The soup started to boil to the top of the pot and spilled over.

"Shit!" Naruto turned down the heat and moved the pot to the steel countertop.

After putting the soup into a bowl and grabbing a spoon, he carried it to the living deck. When he walked into the cabin, Sasuke was no longer on the bed. He set the soup on the desk and noticed that some of his tools were missing. The chip was buried under papers and schematics. He went to the bathroom and heard the shower running. Did Sasuke really think it was okay to be moving around? What if he collapsed or slipped in the shower and re-opened his wound or tore his stitches? Couldn't he have at least _asked _for Naruto's assistance before doing something so careless and stupid? Annoyed, he opened the door and stepped toward the shower cubicle, which had already started to fog from the steam. He knocked on the glass.

"What the _hell _do you think you're doing?" he yelled at Sasuke.

Sasuke spun around in all his naked glory and glared through the shower pane. "Naruto, why the fuck are you in here? Get out!"

"Yeah, okay. Sure." Naruto threw open the door and stepped inside the shower, the spray soaking his clothes. Sasuke backed up but only slightly, and that's when Naruto noticed the stitches had been removed. "What did you do?" He looked at Sasuke like he was batshit crazy, which he obviously was for doing something so reckless. "Did you remove those yourself?" He reached out to touch the scar, but Sasuke slapped his hand away.

"I swear, Naruto, that if you don't get your ass out of here - "

"You're gonna, what, throw me into another piece of furniture? Do you not care how fucking _worried _I was about you?"

"No, I really do not fucking care whether you were worried or not! Why should I? You and I are strangers. If you stuck around because you felt obligated to pay me back for that night, then, guess what, you've paid your debt! Especially since it resulted in me getting my hands on that floating goldmine of scrap!"

Naruto sneered. "You're tryin' to tell me this whole friendship has been about _convenience_?"

Sasuke took a step forward and put his hands on either side of the shower frame, forcing Naruto to lean back. "What I'm _trying_ to tell you is that there _is _no friendship!"

"You're lying!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Do I _look _like I'm lying?"

Naruto glared stubbornly. He really, _really _wanted to punch Sasuke in the face but couldn't bring himself to do it. "Fine," he said. "If that's the way you feel, as soon as I talk to Kakashi, I'll get out of your hair."

"Good," said Sasuke and he pushed Naruto out of the shower. "Now stay the fuck out of my sight until we dock."

Naruto stumbled back. "Tch. Grow up, Sasuke." He paused near the bathroom door. "And, by the way, there's some soup on your desk when you get out. Why don't you eat it because you look like crap, you skinny piece of shit!"

He left the cabin after grabbing his papers and tools, feeling like he wouldn't have much of a problem with avoiding Sasuke over the next few days.

* * *

><p>It was surprisingly easy to steer clear of Naruto. When he and Naruto crossed paths, they didn't exchange words. Naruto would greet him, but Sasuke chose to ignore him. Naruto had been spending a lot of time in his cabin - doing what? - well, Sasuke could care less. In the meantime, there had been a lot to do on the ship: repairing systems, cleaning, organizing the docking bay, doing checkups on the droids, putting together lists of potential missions and contacts. Sasuke wanted to get back to work. He hadn't been on a proper mission in nearly a month and a half, and although his finances were good enough for now, he just didn't want to take such a long break. Long breaks were suspicious to potential clients, so it was important he keep his name out there on the mission boards.<p>

Tomorrow, though, he would take Naruto to see Kakashi. Sasuke had his own information requests to make, and then they would go their separate ways. It was fine. He felt a certain sense of relief at the idea even. He could go find a new crew on the station and make sure it was in their contracts to keep their noses out of his personal business. There were plenty of guys on this station happy enough just to be getting work. They didn't have unrealistic expectations of liking their boss or wanting to be friends; they just wanted to do their job and get paid, and _that_was the sort of relationship Sasuke desired from those he allowed on his ship.

* * *

><p>The next day, Naruto gathered what little he had that belonged to him and stuffed it in a bag. He'd been spending a lot of time digging up more information on Kakashi and researching news articles that involved the massacre of his starfighter fleet and the politicians they'd been escorting. In fact, he'd pretty much forgotten about being angry or disappointed that they were going their separate ways. He was starting to realize just how terrible the situation had grown between the government and the aliens on the drilling planets. In his heart, he knew there was a connection, but journalists who'd suggested a conspiracy, a link between the government's Enforcers and the death of the politicians, were disappearing as the result of a series of suspicious accidents.<p>

He had some gold of his own saved, and he'd also left the ship yesterday to meet a contact on the station who was interested in purchasing the technology for his cloaking chip. With that, there was no information that couldn't be bought from Kakashi.

After showering and shaving, Naruto got dressed. He'd purchased a starfighter's typical garb from one of the clothing stalls - the tighter pants with the holsters and the pockets on his thighs for additional tools or weapons, a sleeveless black shirt and leather jacket that zipped at the side. He put his newly purchased blaster into his holster, another smaller gun was strapped to his ankle, and there was a pocket blade in his back pocket. Anything else he might need could be purchased after their meeting. He wanted to have money on him in case Kakashi required a cash down payment for his information - which he probably would. Most informants preferred it that way since electronic transactions could so easily be traced.

He was ready to go when Sasuke appeared at his door - as usual not speaking a word to him. Naruto took one last look around the cabin before following him through the corridors of the ship, then outside into the station's docking bay and finally into the busy throng of people who populated the system's largest space station.

* * *

><p>The crowds on the station were a cosmopolitan mix. There were as many boutiques catering to the rich as there were low-brow chain stores marketed toward the lower-classes. Every race, every species, every gender was represented. The area beyond the docking bay was for public use. It was annoying in that meant there were tourists - piles of them. The west station was a popular point for a change in shuttle, and while the inhabitants waited for their next flight, they sat around in the chairs or on the floor, with the apparent intention of tripping each other up. Beyond the common area, on the upper decks were offices, businesses, and private quarters. The lower decks offered even more private cabins, but mostly for staff or more important guests who required privacy.<p>

Naruto stuck close behind him, but not too close. It's not as if Sasuke was purposely trying to shake him off, but had he lost Naruto in the crowds, he wouldn't have been that upset. Kakashi's office was on one of the upper decks. They took a transport lift to the 24th floor. Sasuke stared straight ahead at the doors; Naruto was in the corner. Sasuke could feel his eyes on him but chose to ignore it. The sooner they got this over with, the better. Once they reached the deck, they walked by several bland looking offices before coming to a door on their right. There was a codebox to gain entry; Sasuke typed it in. He didn't bother keeping the door open for Naruto, who had stopped to peer into some of the office windows. It nearly slammed in his face, which caused Sasuke to smirk as he climbed the stairwell.

"Yes, very clever," Naruto mumbled as he caught up with him.

"I thought so."

"Oh, so you're talking to me now?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. The stairwell went up to the 25th deck. It was impossible to access it with the lift and had a reputation for being home to several well-known informants. He entered another code and went in through the door that led them to a rather unremarkable room. It looked like the waiting room at a physician's. There was a pair of light brown leather couches, a few chairs, a desk, some filing cabinets, potted plants, and a couple of bookshelves.

"This is a bit anticlimactic, isn't it?" Naruto asked as he started to wander around, touching anything and everything. "So where's Kakashi?"

"Could you stop acting like a 2 year old and have some patience," he snapped. He went up to a monitor on the wall and pushed the com-link button. An obviously altered voice answered him, bidding them entrance. One of the shelving units moved to the side, revealing a secret passage. Sasuke went in first, hearing Naruto's muttered "oh how cool." The unit closed itself off behind them. There was nothing but a long, dark hallway. Sasuke clicked the side of the device on his wrist and it emitted a pale glow. Naruto bumped into him.

"Would you pay a little more attention to where you're going?"

"But I can't see anything. I have to stay close to you."

"That's such crap. You've never had a difficult time finding your way around in the dark while on the ship."

"True," Naruto said. "Maybe I just want to treasure these last moments we have together." His tone was dry, sarcastic. It wasn't something Sasuke was entirely used to hearing. Somehow, it pissed him off, so he said nothing after that. At the end of the hallway, there was a door and another stairwell that only went up half a deck. As soon as they stood in front of the next door, it opened, and they walked in. It had been a while since Sasuke had been here, but it was a pretty impossible sight to forget. He should've known how Naruto would react to the decor.

"Is this... for real?" Naruto went in first, his mouth gaping, and a hint of a blush on his cheeks, nose, and ears.

"What, you've never seen a room full of sex toys before?" Sasuke asked.

"Uuuh..."

There were floating glass shelves attached to three out of the four walls. On them were a variety of dildos in every flesh tone and size, some of them even modeled after alien genitalia. There were posters of old pornographic digitals. They didn't even make them in that form anymore, but the titles were easily recognizable. Not that Sasuke had ever watched any himself.

"No way. There's no way a guy with this sort of collection is gonna be of any help to me," Naruto complained and started to walk toward the door with the purpose of leaving.

Sasuke leaned against the side of a desk, his arms crossed. "Just keep your mouth shut and don't say anything."

"Or touch anything." Naruto visibly shivered after he bumped into a shelving unit that made a double headed dildo jiggle. "Are these... used?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Why are you asking me?"

Naruto looked at him, his eyebrows quirking in amusement. Suddenly, he laughed and scratched the back of his neck.

"Idiot."

Just then, another shelving unit slid open and there he was, the son of the White Fang. Sasuke greeted him with an unimpressed look.

"Yo," said Kakashi. He'd had his face in a dirty magazine, which he tossed at Naruto, who on instinct caught it but then seeing the picture on the centerfold, dropped it to the floor. "Hey, don't be careless with that stuff. It's a collector's item."

Naruto made a face. "Probably not when you don't keep it in mint condition. And judging from the stains, I'd say it's pretty well used."

Kakashi shrugged. He took a seat in the chair behind the desk.

"What's with the mask?" Naruto asked. Kakashi wore a black scarf covering his nose and face. His silver hair was parted in such a way that it fell over one of his eyes. "Are you a bandit?"

"Sasuke?" Kakashi looked up at him. "Your standards in your choice of friends has seriously plummeted."

Sasuke met the look with a glare. "We're not friends. We're here on business. He can pay you in cash."

"Ah, I see. Very well then," his tone became much lighter and his overall expression more jolly. "How can I help you... Naruto was it?"

Naruto appeared rather skeptical. He unzipped his jacket and flopped down at the end of the couch. "Are you really an informant?"

"Well I'm certainly not a dentist."

"Uh, yeah." He glanced at Sasuke, but Sasuke couldn't be bothered to help him out here. "Fine. So, more than a month ago I was on a mission with some other starfighter pilots. We were ambushed by cloaked cruisers - "

Kakashi stood up from his chair. "I see. You work in codenames, don't you? So I didn't recognize you by your name. I'd heard rumors that one of the pilots survived."

Naruto shifted uneasily. "I didn't realize there were any rumors that someone had survived. I was hoping that my being alive would go undetected for a while."

"It's only a rumor," Kakashi said. He walked toward Naruto and dropped into a crouch in front of the sofa, scrutinizing him very carefully. "You're a - "

Naruto jumped forward so fast that Sasuke hadn't even been able to see him move. Naruto's hand was wrapped around his throat. "Don't say it." He let go.

Sasuke had straightened up but beyond that hadn't moved any closer to stop Naruto or to aid Kakashi. Kakashi's eyes were narrowed, but he wasn't angry. He did rub his neck where Naruto's fingers had left red marks. "Fine. I see he doesn't know."

"Doesn't know what?" Sasuke approached them then. "What don't I know?" He looked from one to the other.

Kakashi shook his head. "It doesn't concern you, Sasuke. After all," his one eye twinkled, "You two aren't friends."

Naruto wouldn't meet his gaze. Fine. Whatever. Sasuke didn't care. Naruto could keep all the secrets he wanted to.

"You were saying." Kakashi gestured with his hand, more amused than anything as he watched Naruto, who'd re-taken his seat on the couch.

Naruto eyed the man wearily, but actually looked a bit shaken up about what he'd done though he was apparently trying to hide it from Sasuke. "I want to find out who was behind the attack."

"I think you know that already. Even the media know."

"So it's true then?" asked Naruto. "The government is behind the assassination of its own politicians?"

"You're a naive one, aren't you?" Kakashi laughed. "Is he always this adorable, Sasuke?"

"Adorable isn't the word I'd used to describe him," he answered.

"Even so," said Kakashi, rubbing his chin. "You've kept him with you for the past month, haven't you? Everyone knows you're the one who sold the scrap, and everyone on the boards was talking about the incident at Spike's and how you'd taken on a," he grinned under his scarf, "companion."

Sasuke didn't rise to the bait. "I did take him in. He had nowhere to go and he was useful around the ship."

Naruto bristled. "Not to mention I saved his life because he was being a careless asshole - "

"Shut up, Naruto."

'You shut up, Sasuke!"

"Children!" Kakashi interrupted, sounding positively gleeful. "While I'm so happy that Sasuke has found a playmate that can actually put up with him, I charge by the hour and I have plans for tonight with a certain lady friend, so if we could speed this up." He pulled a USB out of his pocket and threw it at Naruto, who caught it in his hand. "There, that's all the information you need. If you want it."

Naruto flipped it over, suspicious still, but then he pocketed it into his coat. "The Enforcers, their base can be penetrated?"

"But who are the Enforcers," Kakashi asked. "They're no more than mercenaries hired by the government to do their dirty work."

"They killed my friends," Naruto growled.

"The government killed your friends," said Sasuke. "Wake up."

"Oh, this is interesting." Kakashi stepped beside Sasuke and put his arm around his shoulders. "You of all people are defending the Enforcers?"

"I'm not defending them." Sasuke's jaw clenched. "He just needs to know that that group is no more than a bunch of hired puppets."

"By the way," said Kakashi as he leaned further into Sasuke's personal space, "I also made a separate USB for you. If you're interested in a little something special about your brother's whereabouts."

Sasuke's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"

"You didn't think he was dead, did you?"

"Don't fuck with me Kakashi, tell me what you know. Now." Sasuke's hand rested on his holster.

"No need to get violent, though that seems to run in the family, eh?" Kakashi chuckled.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked. Sasuke had nearly forgotten he was there.

"Mind your own damn business. This has nothing to do with you."

"Oh secrets!" Kakashi went over to Naruto. "Naruto, you probably have plenty of stuff you could tell me about Sasuke. I deal in information, you know. It'd be worth plenty to Sasuke's competition."

"As if, you old pervert." Naruto glared. "I don't deal in dirty information to dirty perverts with a weirdo collection of dildos. I mean, what the hell do you do with them. Are they all for you?"

"Like I said," Kakashi winked. "Collector's items."

Naruto shivered and looked a little sick. "How much do you want for the information?"

"Don't you want to check it first? It may be completely blank."

Naruto unzipped his pack and pulled out a device. He inserted the USB into the port and a mini viewscreen popped up in front of him. His eyes widened. "Is this for real?"

Kakashi nodded. "It's very for real."

"How are they getting away with this?"

"The same as they always do when it comes to cover up. Paying people off, getting rid of any opposition by using the Enforcers."

Naruto removed the USB and shoved it back into his pocket. "But those are innocent people on those planets."

"Innocent aliens," Kakashi corrected. "You think the government sees aliens as equal in value to humans?"

Naruto glanced away. "It shouldn't matter."

"I think we know it does," Kakashi replied, and looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke had been too busy thinking about what Kakashi had said earlier to have really paid attention to their conversation. "Where's mine? I want it now."

"So impatient. That's not free, you know. Not this time. No matter what sort of artifacts you may bring me."

"We can negotiate the price depending on what kind of information you have on Itachi."

"Who's Itachi?" asked Naruto.

"His brother." Kakashi pointed at him.

"He doesn't need to get involved," Sasuke said angrily. "It's none of his business either."

"His brother's an Enforcer," Kakashi said anyway.

"Kakashi." Sasuke unsnapped his holster and grabbed the blaster handle.

"He's bound to figure it out sooner or later. I gave him a list of all known Enforcers and their recent whereabouts. He's still listed as current."

"You're a liar," said Sasuke.

"Not a liar, but my information could be outdated, but it's the best you're gonna find, I'm afraid. My sources, however, are very reliable."

"Who?" asked Sasuke.

"Deidara."

"Oh hey, I saw that guy. He nearly killed us!" Naruto got to his feet and came toward Sasuke. "You said Deidara used to be an Enforcer. Now this pervert's saying that your brother is an Enforcer. Is he the one responsible for killing my friends?"

"Get out of my face, Naruto!"

"No." Naruto got even closer, grabbing hold of his shirt. "I want answers. I want to know what's going on and who killed my friends, why they had to die alongside these politicians. Why it's so important for the government to hire murderers in order to keep word from getting out about the mass alien genocide that's going on."

Sasuke shoved him away. "Like I fucking care about your friends or those aliens! People die all the time. Do you think it's new for a government to want to cover up a conspiracy? Really? What do you think the Enforcers were created for, tea parties?"

"Of course not, but why weren't the starfighters warned that it was even a possibility? The people who hire us out, they have better info than anyone, and they had no idea? How am I supposed to know who to trust?"

"That's not my problem," replied Sasuke in a low tone of voice.

"Right, I see. Because you only give a damn about yourself and your ship and nothing else."

"At least you're not so much of an idiot that you understand that much."

"Hmm," Kakashi interrupted them.

Sasuke had forgotten about him, and now he was all worked up. He tried to regain his cool, backing up against the desk and making his expression neutral.

"You two have a rather interesting relationship." Kakashi was taking great enjoyment out of this.

"Naruto, pay the man and get lost, he and I need to have a private conversation."

"Why should I get lost? Your brother is tied to the same group I'm gonna go after."

"My brother is _dead_."

Naruto growled in his throat. "You call _me_ naive, but maybe _you're _the one who needs to wake up, Sasuke! He's telling you your brother is alive and involved in the murder of innocent people, and you're gonna what, just stand around pretending not to see it happening?"

"Shut up!" Sasuke roared, charging at Naruto. He grabbed him by the jacket and threw him down on the floor, straddling him. "What do you know about me, huh? We spent a month on the ship together, that's all. You know nothing, about me or my family! You're just a sorry-ass starfighter who was so talentless he got his entire fleet killed!"

Naruto's mouth fell open in surprise, his face red with anger. Sasuke felt him trembling. Naruto grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled them so close that their lips nearly touched as he spoke. "If you ever say that again, I swear on my mother's grave that I will beat you so hard that you won't be able to walk for months."

Sasuke smirked. "I'd like to see you try. Why _don't _we team up together, that way I can look forward to an untimely death thanks to your incompetence."

Naruto spit in his face. "You bastard!"

"Truth hurts, doesn't it." Sasuke sneered and started to pull away, but Naruto gripped his arms and held him close. Their breaths mingled. Naruto said his name, causing their lips to brush. The contact gave Sasuke a shock, but before he could even react, Naruto landed a punch across his face. It wasn't Naruto's full strength, but it was a hit hard enough to cause his head to snap to the side. Naruto took advantage of his surprise and violently shoved Sasuke off of him. He sat up, knees drawn to his chest. Naruto shook his head and got to his feet. He walked to Kakashi and paid him in a sack of small gold bars.

Then without even looking back, he left the room.


	7. Chapter 7

After blowing off some steam, Naruto had ended up sitting in the back corner of a buffet-style restaurant. He'd already eaten his way through three full plates of food. He'd spent some time scanning the data on the USB Kakashi had given him. He had a photographic memory when it came to this sort of data, so he'd memorized all of the stats for the Enforcer members. There were eight active members: Uchiha Itachi, Hoshikage Kisame, Yakushi Kabuto, Zetsu, Hisoka, Zoldyck Illumi, Konan and Tobi. Inactive or recently deceased members: Deidara, Kimimaro, Sasori, Nagato, Hidan, Kakuzu, Zoldyck Killua. Basically, all members were trained assassins of varying backgrounds. They often moved from base to base, so if Naruto was going to get any answers, he would have to act fast and find a ship and crew to take him there no later than tomorrow morning, earlier if possible. He'd paid particular attention to Itachi's bio. He was wanted for murder, treason, kidnapping, assault, arson (the list goes on...) on a multitude of planets and star systems. Naruto wasn't sure if he was surprised Sasuke's brother was an assassin, or maybe it made perfect sense? Sasuke was in the illegal smuggling trade and had one hell of a temper. Maybe it was a genetic thing? But why had Sasuke figured his brother for dead? Did he hate him solely because of the things Itachi had done, or was there more behind it?

Naruto was slurping an udon noodle when a tall figure dressed in a grey cloak dropped into the seat across from him. Naruto glared and pointed a chopstick at the person as he lowered his hood and stared.

"What do _you _want? I already paid you almost everything I had!"

"Almost?" Kakashi rubbed his chin. "Had I known you were holding out, I would've asked for more."

"Whatever."

"I take it you've studied the information."

Naruto raised an eyebrow as he licked some juice from his fingers. "Why are you here?"

Kakashi put his elbow on the table, looking rather bored. "Sasuke's gone ahead to their last known base."

The chopsticks fell onto the table, splattering broth. "What?"

"You must've known he was going to do that. You seem to know Sasuke well, so it shouldn't surprise you."

"Yeah, but I didn't think he'd move _that _fast! I thought he'd take some time to at least make preparations."

"When it comes to Itachi," Kakashi picked a green grape off of Naruto's plate and popped it into his mouth, "Sasuke doesn't think rationally."

"You came all the way here to tell me this?" Naruto couldn't help but be suspicious despite the fact that Sasuke seemed to trust the guy, and he had given him all this data easily enough, but who's to say that wasn't all a means to set them both up for a trap?

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "I like Sasuke. I've known him since he was a kid, and he can be a brat, but that doesn't mean I want to see him die. Life is far too amusing with him in it."

"Then why give him that information?" Naruto sat back in the chair, arms crossed. "It's your fault if anything happens."

"Hey, I'm an informant. It's my job to inform. He pays me in ways others can't."

"Uh..."

"Your brain is in the gutter. Of course, I meant in goods."

"What? Collector's items?"

Kakashi laughed and stole another grape. "Something like that."

"He left within the last hour?"

"Forty minutes ago."

"Shit. Okay," Naruto started to get up. "I guess I need to find a ship then."

Kakashi cocked his head. "You're going after him?"

"Huh? Isn't that why you told me?"

"I was just making conversation. It gets pretty boring around here. Can I ask you something before you dash off to his rescue?"

"I guess."

"Why are you chasing him? I mean, it's _the_Uchiha Sasuke. He's not a nice guy. He said some pretty terrible things to you. Why go so far for him?"

"Tch," Naruto picked up his pack and threw it over his shoulder, "He may be a moody bitch, but he's still a friend. I wouldn't be alive now if it weren't for him. You think I can forget about that and just let him fly off to his death?"

"He won't appreciate you interfering." Kakashi stood as well, pulling up the hood of the cloak about his face.

"Thanks for the advice." He started to walk past but Kakashi grabbed him by the arm.

"Then here's another piece of advice. There's a crew that's just come in that knows the base location very well and can get you through the initial security. You'll have to get yourself in the rest of the way."

Naruto frowned. "Who do I ask for?"

Kakashi's eye positively gleamed with mirth. "Ask for Houzuki Suigetsu. Have you heard of the name?"

"No. Should I have?"

Kakashi briefly searched his face. "Hmm. Good luck. I have a feeling you'll need it."

Naruto stood a moment, watching Kakashi leave the restaurant. He shook his head and went to the cashier to pay his bill. The docking bay was only one floor below, so he wasn't likely to get lost this time. He had no idea of knowing whether to trust Kakashi or not, but it's not as if he had a choice. As he entered the transport lift to the lower deck, he couldn't help but feel a little shocked that Sasuke had taken the Accipiter and abandoned him here.

"Fucking stubborn jerk," he mumbled to himself even though there were others in the lift, but they paid him no mind. They were likely used to travelers who talked to themselves. He made sure the hood of his own cloak was up, hiding his distinguishable hair and eyes.

The docking bay was a busy place, packed with travelers, pilots, crews, soldiers, and vendors. It was utter chaos with ships coming and going at all times. Ships looking to take on passengers often had a crew member standing outside, shouting to potential customers about their low prices, but it was the loud ones he wanted to avoid. As he strolled further into the bay, the crowd thinned since the pilots in this area had a certain reputation for providing questionable services. Most everyone wore cloaks or carried visible weapons. There were lots of intimidating figures mulling around, scouting out potential clients or potential trouble.

Naruto had been watching a woman with tentacle-like arms slap a man in the face when suddenly he bumped into someone. An apology was on his lips out of a strange habit, when the other man beat him to it.

"Sorry. Didn't see you there."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "Er, no. It was me." He scratched the back of his head even though it was covered by the hood. "I guess I wasn't payin' attention to where I was goin'. Lots to see. You know how it goes." He chuckled nervously. The man was about two times as tall as him and built like a tank. A bit of bright orange hair stuck out from under his hood. He looked rough, but he had a sort of simple air about him.

"Yeah, I understand. No harm, no foul. No need to start a scuffle over such a tiny thing, y'know?"

Naruto nodded. "Uh yeah, I totally agree. Actually, maybe you can help me?"

"If I can, I'll surely try. You're a tiny guy, aren't you? You should be careful out here. There are lots of dangerous guys. You could get hurt."

"Ah, thanks... yeah," he replied awkwardly. "I'm lookin' for someone."

"Oh?" The man smiled in a friendly manner. "Lots of people are lookin' for someone. Anyone in particular?"

"A pilot, I guess. Or, well I'm lookin' for a crew. I was referred by someone to find a man named Suigetsu."

The other's expression changed completely, the lines by his eyes and mouth tightening. Naruto noticed and wondered if, indeed, this was some sort of joke Kakashi had played on him, but the taller man put his arms about Naruto's shoulder and under his breath said, "Follow me. Don't make eye contact with anyone."

Naruto did as he was told, asking quietly, "You're not him, are you?"

"No, I'm Juugo. But I can take you to him. We were hoping to find a new client quick, but I didn't think it'd go so well." He clapped Naruto so hard on the back he stumbled ahead a few steps. "Oh, sorry about that. Sometimes I forget my own strength."

"Don't worry," he said. "Sometimes I have the same problem."

* * *

><p>The whole process of hiring a crew, boarding the ship, and taking off seemed to occur all within a whirlwind 15 minutes. Naruto had agreed to pay half now in cash and the other half upon arrival after he transferred funds around from his accounts. The crew seemed desperate to take on a client. While they weren't the most agreeable group of people he'd ever met, he'd seen worse, and, hell, he'd just spent the last <em>month<em> living with Sasuke. It was weird, really, because the pilot, Suigetsu, reminded him a lot of Sasuke, and so he found himself staring at the other man often. His skin was rather pale, with almost a greenish-blue tint to it, his eyes were almond-shaped and the color bordered on violet, and his _teeth_... Could you imagine getting a clumsy blowjob from that guy? Yack. Naruto shivered.

"What's wrong with you?" Karin, the female member of their crew narrowed her eyes. Not that Naruto had been eavesdropping (okay, yeah he had), but she'd been the one to voice dissent about taking him on, calling him suspicious. But, hello, how was he suspicious compared to this lot? He was the normal one here. Although if Karin didn't have that crude mouth on her, he could potentially see her as pretty shaggable, and, _oh_, had it now been ages since he'd gotten laid. But no, no, this was business! He should be thinking of Sasuke and how that bastard was pretty much running straight toward his own demise.

They were all sitting around in the mess hall, because, well, he wasn't offered his own cabin and that was probably so they could keep an eye on him. Suigetsu had gone off to the pit to set the course and would return shortly. He and Karin had gotten into some fight over who would be making dinner tonight for everyone, and it had ended with Suigetsu yelling at her that she was the woman, so she was the one who should be handling all the stupid domestic shit. Juugo, who had gone rather quiet once in the company of the other two intimidating (read: overly vocal) crew members.

"So why is it we're taking you to this base?" asked Karin, still glaring at him.

"Karin, that's none of our business."

"Oh shut up, you big baby. I want to know. I mean look at him. My intuition tells me there's something not right here. I smell a rat!"

"Are you sure that's not just your own breath blowing back in your face?" Suigetsu asked as he came back into the hall and took a chair at the opposite end of the long table. "As for that so-called _intuition_, it's probably hormones. I'd say it's your time of the month, but you're like this every goddam day." He looked at Naruto, "You can't trust something that bleeds for five days straight and doesn't die."

A chair went flying toward his head, but Suigetsu easily dodged it by ducking. He grinned that toothy grin at Naruto, who glanced at Juugo to see what he was doing, not really wanting to be put in the middle of their fighting. The other man appeared to be doodling on a piece of crumpled paper.

"Hey, what's that? It's pretty good. A bird or something?" he asked.

Juugo nodded. "Yeah. I like to draw animals."

"Where I'm from, there are all kinds of interesting creatures that you won't find on any other planet."

Juugo glanced up and smiled. "Really? How lucky. I grew up on a desert planet. There wasn't much there, and then I got arrested and sent to prison at a young age for killing - "

"_Juugo_," Karin hissed and slid her finger in front of her mouth, "Zip it! He doesn't need to know any personal information about us."

"I don't think he poses us any harm." Juugo shook his head.

"You're right, Karin. You're such a paranoid whorebeast. You think everyone's out to get ya when no one in their right head would touch you with a three foot pole."

Karin scoffed and dropped her gaze to his crotch. "Three foot pole? More like three_inch_pole in your case. And," she flipped her hair behind her shoulder, "had I had just a little more time with Sasuke, I would've brought him to his knees."

Naruto stiffened at hearing Sasuke's name. He lowered his eyes, not wanting to reveal anything by his body language, but Juugo noticed.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Ah fine," answered Naruto. "Just a little, er, tired."

Their quiet conversation went unnoticed by Karin and Suigetsu, who were still arguing over Sasuke and who he liked better between the two of them. It hadn't taken him long to come to the conclusion as to why Kakashi had suggested _this _crew out of all others. What a twisted sense of humor that man had. He shut his eyes and shook his head. He didn't know whether he should be grateful or extremely annoyed. He'd always been curious about the crew and why they'd left, but he also had _been_with Sasuke long enough to know that he could drive anyone away without even trying.

"This Sasuke," Naruto cleared his throat, speaking to Juugo. "Who was he if you don't mind me asking."

"Guy we used to work with."

"_For_," Karin corrected. "We didn't work _with_ him, we worked _for_him. He didn't respect us enough to see us as equals. He always treated us like tools or whatever, but holy fucking shit was he a hot piece of ass."

"Even I woulda done him," Suigetsu agreed, and Karin stole the pen from out of Juugo's hand and lobbed it at him. It flew into the wall and bounced a couple of times on the floor. Juugo, quietly, got up from his chair to pick it up and then sat down again to continue his doodling.

"Like Sasuke'd be interested in your noodle dick," Karin sneered.

"Where is he now?" Naruto ventured to ask.

"Who knows." She shrugged and took off her glasses, rubbing out a spot on them with her finger. She put them back on. "Last I heard he was seen on Quintana with a partner, but I doubt it. That guy always travels alone, and he's popular so people like to make up all sorts of rumors about him." She laughed. "Serves him right, though, for being so damn arrogant all the time. If he thinks he can do it all better on his own, then good for him."

"Sasuke's a very complex person," Juugo said in a low voice. "We shouldn't talk about him this way."

"Figures you'd defend him," said Suigetsu, arms crossed against his chest.

"I owe him a lot. Besides, I don't think he was such a bad guy."

"Pfft." Karin glowered at him. "You're too damn soft, Juugo." She glanced at Suigetsu and smirked. "Like this guy. He can _never_get hard. His junk's not big enough for blood to even circulate. It just thinks it's a dead-end street so it turns around and goes the other way. Obviously not to his brain, though."

"Uh huh. And when was the last time anyone showed interest in your saggy cow tits?"

Karin smiled, adjusting her glasses. "This new guy here. He's checked me out at least five times while we've been at the table." She looked at Naruto and squeezed her arms to her chest, pushing her breasts even further out of her low-cut shirt.

"Uh..." Naruto glanced around the table, not knowing how to answer.

"If that's true, he must be desperate," said Suigetsu.

"What, you can smell your own kind?" snapped Karin. "Shut the fuck up already! Staring at your face is making me all dry down there like that useless desert planet Juugo was born on." She turned to Juugo. "No offense." He shrugged at her, unfazed. "I don't need birth control, I just need a picture of your face and the idea of sex makes me want to vomit!"

"What are you talkin' about, hag? You've had plenty of babies, just none of them carried to full term." Suigetsu smiled smugly while picking something out of his teeth.

Naruto got up from the table. "I think I'm gonna take a walk around the ship if you don't mind."

But no one was paying attention except Juugo, who offered to join him, and Naruto, having desired a bit of company and finding himself fond of the large man, happily agreed to have him.

* * *

><p>Juugo was a quiet, soft-spoken sort of guy. He pointed out a few things as they walked the corridor outside the mess hall. It led to the cargo bay, which is where Naruto was shown what was probably the escape pod they'd stolen from Sasuke. He had a hard time keeping his laughter in. Frankly, he thought Sasuke probably deserved it on some karma-related level. He really wanted to ask Juugo questions about Sasuke, but he also didn't want to give himself away. Yet, Juugo had already expressed his loyalty. He had to wonder if maybe they would help him out if they knew what his plan was? Wasn't that what Kakashi had in mind? He decided to chance it. They had taken a seat on a couple of crates, sitting side by side.<p>

"Juugo?"

"Hm?"

"Er," Naruto scratched his cheek. "I'm a friend of Sasuke's actually."

Juugo stared but didn't speak right away, and Naruto couldn't quite read his expression.

"I... didn't realize you knew him when I asked for your services. I really was recommended you by a guy who also knows Sasuke."

"Hatake Kakashi, right?"

"Uh, yeah. How did you know?"

Juugo crossed one leg over the other and hunched his shoulders, staring out the portal window. "You're not as conspicuous as you think. The instant I saw you, I recognized you."

Naruto pulled down his hood. "Recognized me? But we've never met."

"There are pictures of you on the forums. Nothing too public. But the incident at Spike's was a big deal. Like you heard, there were rumors, descriptions. I was a bit skeptical, but, after today, I know it to be true. That you and Sasuke were partners."

"The way you say that makes it sound so homoerotic," Naruto muttered. "Why was what happened at Spike's such a big deal?"

"It's more than that. There are other rumors floating around, about that ambush on a group of starfighters and the assassination of the Syndicate politicians. Some even say Sasuke was involved in it."

"That's ridiculous," said Naruto, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "He found me shortly after it happened and saved my life. Yeah, the bastard sold the scrap of what was left of the fleet, but he wasn't involved in the incident."

Juugo shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Sasuke has lots of enemies and any one of them can start a rumor to ruin his reputation. I mean look at us. We left and took his pod here," he pointed over his shoulder. "Sasuke drives people away and pisses everyone off just because of who he is."

"But I thought you were loyal to him...?"

Juugo tilted his head. "I am. He, like with you, pretty much saved my life. But at the end, none of us could get through to him. He'd hole up in the cockpit. It was really Suigetsu and Karin's idea, but I don't think they meant anything by it. I think they thought they were calling Sasuke's bluff, but - "

"He just didn't act like he cared?" Naruto supplied somberly.

"He's in trouble, isn't he?"

Naruto sighed. "Heh. Is it that obvious?"

"You two have separated. Kakashi's involved. We were aware the Accipiter had departed shortly before we docked. It's not as if we wanted to run into him."

"Funny how things work out. Say, can I ask you, do you know anything about his brother Itachi?"

Juugo's lips parted a bit, indicating surprise. "He talked to you about that?"

"Not really, but the whole story does seem to involve him somehow. That's why Sasuke left. Apparently he's alive?"

Juugo got to his feet, perturbed. He paced a few steps, then back the other way. He stopped in front of Naruto and looked down at him. "Sasuke talked very little about his family. But, yes, I was under the impression Itachi had been killed years ago."

"By whom?" asked Naruto.

Juugo narrowed his eyes. "You don't know? It was Sasuke. Sasuke killed his brother."

Naruto blinked several times at the other man as he tried to absorb this bit of information. "He killed his own brother?"

"The station we're taking you to, it's known to house an Enforcer base."

"Then why did agree to take me?"

"The money mostly, but it's not hard to get into the station where the base is located. But penetrating any further than that, into the underground cells? Near impossible. They're only planning to drop you off and then you're on your own."

"That's fair," said Naruto. "I don't want to get anyone else involved."

"But Sasuke's in danger?" Juugo appeared rather pained.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. He's gone after Itachi, I guess."

"Hm. That doesn't seem like him to make such an erratic decision."

"Yeah, well, he's not the most stable person I've ever met."

"I dunno." Juugo smiled. "He always seemed to have a lot on his shoulders. He carried it on his own. Didn't ask for help ever. I think he hired us because he was lonely, but in those last few weeks we were altogether, he grew colder."

"Well, he can be cold, but I think there's more to it. The mention of Itachi seems to flip a crazy switch in him."

Juugo laughed.

"What's so funny?" asked Naruto, frowning.

"I can relate to having a 'crazy switch' as you say."

"I don't think you seem a bad guy." Naruto grinned, genuine in his praise.

"You're a bit strange, Naruto. But I think I can see what Sasuke liked about you."

"I don't know if he liked _anything_about me, but I do feel I owe him my life. That, and I don't want to see him throw his away. Even if he hates me for interfering."

"Alright," said Juugo. "Let me talk to Karin and Suigetsu and see if we can offer you any extra help. You say Sasuke's on his way to the base now? Well, his ship is well known. There's no way he could get in without a cloaking device."

"Fuck." Naruto slapped his forehead.

"What's wrong?"

"It's funny you mention that. I was working on a prototype, and... I'd sort of left it as a parting gift... shit."

"If that's how it is, we're better off getting there as soon as possible. Even if he only had an hour head start on us, he may be in the base already. Or worse. He may have already been killed."

All the blood drained from Naruto's face. "No way. Sasuke won't go down that easy. I believe in him."

Juugo gave him one last look before leaving him alone in the cargo bay. Naruto looked at his hands and then out the window, watching the stars in the distance. He didn't know if he'd made the right decision in involving these people, in even telling the truth. He only had his instinct to go on, but what was the worst that could happen?

* * *

><p>The next thing he knew, Naruto found himself on the floor, bound and gagged. They'd put on some archaic-looking handcuffs that dug into his skin if he so much as struggled, and apparently with a remote, a needle could shoot out at anytime and inject fatal poison into his system, so on that threat alone, Naruto decided to remain submissive for the time being.<p>

Juugo had appeared rather apologetic, but there wasn't much he could do. Karin and Suigetsu were in the middle of an argument.

"I told you I smelled a rat!" she shouted.

"Yeah, yeah. It's not as if he was up to anything weird. He only wanted dropped off, and that's all we were paid to do."

"Do you believe what he said about Sasuke? Maybe Sasuke hired this guy to get back at us for the pod we stole. It could be a trap."

"Then why would he tell Juugo all that crap about what he knew? It'd be obvious that this would be our reaction."

To be honest, as Naruto lay there on the floor, he hadn't really considered this an option, but he could be flexible. At least he wasn't dead, and they were still on course for the station.

"No. He wasn't hired by Sasuke. We've seen the clips on the forums, and he fits the guy's description," said Juugo.

"That's even more incriminating. Not that I think Sasuke'd actually be friends with a guy like this," Karin nudged him hard with the tip of her black boot, "but maybe he's brainwashed or Sasuke paid him or who knows?"

"Think about it, bitch," said Suigetsu. "If Sasuke wanted revenge, would he send someone else to do it?"

Karin frowned. "True. He's much too proud to do that. Fuck." She gave Naruto another kick to his side. "Is he really in trouble? If you're fucking with me, er," she blushed and adjusted her glasses, "I mean us, because I don't specifically care if anything happens to him, but he wasn't _that _bad of a guy..." She trailed off, her face turning a brighter shade of red.

"You whore, could you stop wetting your panties over Sasuke for three seconds so we can figure out a plan?" Suigetsu took a seat on one of the crates.

"Why should we risk our lives?" asked Karin. "Why don't we just drop him off like he wanted us to do?"

"He hasn't been there before," he pointed at Naruto, who was watching him calmly from the floor even though his ribs ached where he'd been kicked. "He won't even get through security. But what if we say we've taken him as a prisoner? Surely, there's a bounty on his head just for being associated with Sasuke, and, if it's true what Juugo said, that this guy is the missing starfighter people've been talking about? Oh shit, he'd be worth thousands."

"They might kill him on the spot," Juugo argued.

"And that's our problem how?" Karin snarled.

"He says he's a friend of Sasuke's. He wants to save him."

"Sasuke doesn't want to be _saved_!" she yelled.

"Fine. We'll vote on it," said Suigetsu. "All those in favor of helping out Sasuke, say aye."

Suigetsu and Juugo voiced their approval. Naruto made a noise of agreement through the tape on his mouth. Karin glared at him.

"Your vote doesn't count," she said.

Suigetsu snickered. "It's not as if a woman's vote counts either, so there you go. It's 3-0."

Karin flew at him. "You pea-brained monkey!"

As they punched and kicked and scratched at one another, Juugo crouched beside him and peeled off the tape. "See. We'll help you get Sasuke back."

"He's right," Naruto said, licking his lips. "It might be best for you guys to act as if I'm your prisoner."

"Yeah, and stupid Suigetsu has that damn criminal record, so we always have to be careful as it is." Karin and Suigetsu had stopped fighting. Karin was dully investigating her fingernails as she walked over to Naruto. She crouched at his side and gave him a good once over. She touched the scars on his cheek and fingered his hair, then ran the tip of her finger along the line of his jaw. "What does he see in you that he didn't see in the rest of us?"

Naruto had no answer for her because he had no idea himself.

* * *

><p>Using that moron's cloaking chip had made it incredibly easy to get to the outpost station. He passed by several security points as he'd entered the planet's atmosphere and was able to dock in an undisclosed location not far from the station. Sasuke had called in a favor and was able to find someone who would hide him in the back of a hovercraft, where he hid amongst the cargo. They'd been able to get through security and made it as far as one of the docking ports, where Sasuke drew his cloak about him and slipped out of the craft.<p>

Years ago, he'd stolen one of Itachi's clearance cards that - at the time - had offered him access to just about anywhere. Whether or not it still worked was answered quickly enough when the door refused to open. However, two men in military dregs, busy talking about official matters (how their commander's wife had caught him with a hooker the other week and bitten part of his ear off), swiped their cards through and went inside, Sasuke following inconspicuously behind them. He'd memorized a map of the facility before entering, and where the soldiers turned right, he turned left, searching out one of the air shafts that should be at the end of the corridor. As he approached one of the first cameras, Sasuke pulled out a device from his back pouch and clicked the button. It interfered with the electronic surveillance, and would show up as about 20 seconds of recorded static, so he had to be quick as he proceeded down the empty hall.

He removed the grate from the shaft and slid inside, replacing it as quietly as possible. The space was tight. Sasuke barely had room to crawl. He slid like a snake on his belly, and he had to do this for another 60 yards before he was over an area where there were designated transport lifts that led to the underground base. The oxygen level was nearly non-existent in the shaft, making him feel extremely light headed and dizzy. At times, he even thought he was hearing or seeing things in the dark. He mostly had to feel his way around with his hands. If the schematics for the layout of the ship were wrong, hell, he could be stuck in here forever. But he was sure about this. After about 45 yards, there was a glimmer of light ahead, coming from a ceiling grate. Sasuke peered through the small openings and found the room underneath to be clear. He unscrewed the gate and dropped down without making a single sound. The room was a sterile white. There was only a glass top table and three chairs on either side of it. A conference room, he guessed. But everything seemed just a little _too_ easy, _too _quiet.

Writing it off as paranoia from having been confined to that small tunnel for the last 40 minutes, crawling inch by inch, Sasuke tried to open the door, but it wouldn't work. He tried to override the panel as he'd seen Suigetsu do so many times when hacking into operating systems, but still nothing. He even tore open the paneling and pulled and reattached the wires in the hopes of short-circuiting it.

Sasuke put his hand on the door. He felt a slight vibration as if the door itself was pulsing with energy. He reached into his pouch and brought out a clay explosive. He molded it in his hand and attached it to the door, setting the timer for 15 seconds. Then he slipped into a corner and wrapped his microfibre cloak around him. There was an explosion, but hardly any sound. The door opened, and Sasuke found himself in another corridor. The floor was metal and filled with gaps; his boots made clanking noises as he walked on it. A series of monitors were embedded into either side of the walls. Sasuke clicked the button on the interference device and sprinted down the hall at full speed until he reached a thick titanium door that required iris verification. He dug through another pocket and inserted a contact he'd created after making a copy from Itachi's eye. The system accepted the verification and let him inside another empty chamber. However, it wasn't a room Sasuke had recognized from the schematics. There was a door to his right and a door to his left. He had no idea which to choose. Sasuke was about to try the right door, but he hesitated. He decided on the left.

The door opened without him having to prompt it. Had he time to have processed this as a sign he was in trouble, he would have, but there wasn't more than a fraction of a second before it felt like he'd been plowed into by a land speeder. He dropped to his hands and knees, coughing up blood and trying to suck in air, when another powerful, bone-shattering blow landed on his ribcage and flipped him to his back. He rolled to his side and curled into a ball, spitting out blood before he started choking on it.

"Bad luck must run in the family," said the man as he propped a large sword against his shoulder. "Shoulda gone with the other door."

A metal-tipped boot smashed into his face and put him out of his misery.

* * *

><p>When Sasuke awoke, he was staring through the bars of a prison cell. He groaned as he tried to sit. The wound on his chest from the earlier accident felt as if it had re-opened. He'd been stripped of his cloak and weapons. In only a sleeveless shirt, cargo pants, and boots, he shivered. The air in the cell was sour and damp as if he was deep underground, below a sewage unit. He licked up and down his molars, still tasting residual blood. As he ran his hand over the sore parts of his torso, he felt bruising, probably even some severe internal injuries, but nothing fatal. There was really no way of telling how long he'd been out, but if he had to guess, maybe an hour or two.<p>

That face he'd seen, he thought he remembered it from somewhere. A long-time accomplice and partner of Itachi: Kisame. Figures his brother wouldn't show up to face him on his own.

Sasuke managed to scoot back enough in the cell to lean against the wall for support. It was a stupid thing to think about at the moment, but he could just _see_Naruto laughing at him for getting himself beaten up again, charging into the situation without considering the enemy might've been expecting him. Wasn't that Naruto's forte? But why, after all this time, was he still so weak? He'd gotten this far only to be thrown into a damn holding cell. There were no grates, there was barely enough ventilation for him to breathe properly. There was a titanium slab for a door that didn't have any panel on the inside, which meant it could only be opened from the other side. All he could do was sit here and wait - assuming they weren't just leaving him for dead.

He dragged his tongue over his lips, which were parched and bleeding. Sasuke leaned his head against the wall, about to close his eyes, when an image appeared on the other side of the bars. It was a hologram in the shape of what looked to be three large crimson commas that suddenly morphed together into a triangle with curved sides.

The scream he unleashed - had anyone been around to hear it - would have made their blood run cold.

But there was no one there to even witness Sasuke's suffering as he collapsed on the floor, his eyes open wide and staring at the ceiling - but seeing absolutely nothing.

* * *

><p>Naruto felt a strong sense of urgency as the ship finally landed. He couldn't be certain, but if they didn't get a move on, he thought for sure Sasuke would be dead before they took a step inside the station. The plan was for Suigetsu and Juugo to escort him to the station as a prisoner they'd sell off to the highest bidder. As it turned out, there was a bounty on his head, but oddly enough, his name wasn't given, it was just a photo of his face from a captured image at Spike's when he'd been fighting all those stupid assholes. There were even some trumped up charges attached to the image - reckless endangerment, destruction of private property, assault - okay, they weren't exactly trumped up as he'd done all that and more, but it was far too little to account for the exorbitant bounty. Something was definitely wrong here, and he was taking a risk now in showing his face so publicly in a base associated with the Syndicate military and the Enforcers.<p>

Karin stayed with the ship in case they needed to make a quick getaway. She was also going to do some research around the garage where they had docked to see if anyone had seen a man that fit Sasuke's description.

As he, Juugo, and Suigetsu piled into the hovercraft, he pulled the hood down over his face. He wore a different set of handcuffs that didn't promise swift death if he struggled. The planet, Aenean, from space looked like a big ball of blue crystal. The land itself was mostly covered in water, so the base's foundation had been built on a man-made island. The part of the station where the Enforcers were said to be was underground, within winding tunnels that worked like a maze. But Naruto had memorized the schematics Kakashi had given, and so long as he could get past the initial security, he thought he could find his way through the corridors, but it's hard to say exactly where Sasuke might be or of he'd come in contact with the Enforcer's central quarters.

"Hey, you being so quiet makes me nervous," Suigetsu said, looking at him over his shoulder. Juugo was the one driving the craft.

"I'm more excited than I am nervous," replied Naruto, still glancing at the scenery. In any other situation, this would have been a beautiful place to visit. The road they were on was packed with other crafts, all heading to and from the base. There was a fair amount of military present, some of which wielded heavy artillery. "But I do think we should hurry. I have a bad feeling."

Suigetsu laughed. "What are you, an empath?" He nudged the larger man. "Bad feeling. Did you hear that?"

"I think he's probably right," said Juugo. "I hope we make it in time."

Suigetsu growled. "You guys are makin' me so damn tense! I'm the one with the record here, so one wrong move, and I'm gonna be screwed, too. Y'know."

"That's why I'll do all of the talking." Juugo pushed on the brake as traffic seemed to slow up ahead of them due to some accident. "This doesn't look good."

Naruto squeezed himself between the two front seats to get a glimpse of what was happening. A large cargo carrier had turned over, its contents spilling out onto the road. Traffic had completely stopped, and the road to the base was over water, so there was no way of getting around it... unless...

"Say, why don't you take these cuffs off me for a sec, and let me drive?" Naruto suggested.

"Fuck off. Are you kidding? What if we get caught? Then we'd all get thrown in jail."

"To be fair, that's the point anyway, isn't it? At least that'll get us inside. Just let me handle it."

Suigetsu and Juugo looked at one another. Juugo shrugged. "It's fine with me."

Suigetsu didn't look happy about it, but he reached around and took off the cuffs. Naruto rubbed his wrists and switched places with Juugo, adjusting the seat and getting comfortable with the system. As Naruto was about to take hold of the steering controls, Suigetsu grabbed his arm.

"Are you sure we can trust you?" he asked.

Naruto grinned. "Just go with it. If anyone asks, I threatened your lives and took control of your hovercraft, yeah?"

"You mean you _want _to get caught?"

"We're running out of time, so it's the quickest way to get to where Sasuke is. I have a feeling that they know we're coming. That they knew Sasuke was coming, and that was their intention all along, and I don't know about you, but I hate letting people down."

With that, Naruto pulled hard on the clutch, backed up the hovercraft which caused them to run into two guys on speeder bikes, but then Naruto took them off the path and down the side of the grassy bank, where they rammed through several barriers as a pair of military guys immediately started shooting their blasters at them. Naruto made sure to smash into their hoverboat as they neared the water.

"You fucking idiot, are you insane?" Suigetsu yelled. "They're not just gonna capture us, they're gonna kill us!"

Juugo was laughing in the back seat.

"What the fuck is so fucking funny, you asshole?" Suigetsu turned to him and glared.

Juugo just shook his head. "Now I can understand what it takes to be seen as Sasuke's equal. The kid's got guts."

Naruto chuckled as he rocked the hovercraft back and forth to get rid of the debris from the barricades that had gotten stuck on the hood and shield. Behind them, they could hear a military cruiser boat yelling at them to stop or they'd open fire, but Naruto only shifted gears so that they could speed up. There were several large rocks that jutted out of the water, and he had to zig zag between them, not always able to see the shorter rock pillars behind the larger ones, but he had a good instinct for this as it was no different than flying a speeder bike through the woods at home, except the hovercraft was significantly wider.

Ahead, he could see the beginnings of the base as they approached the island. It was surrounded by a thick alloyed wall, but all Naruto wanted to do was get to the rocky beach that surrounded it. From there, the military would escort them inside, and, hopefully, he'd be sent right to where Sasuke was, or a hell of a lot closer than he could've managed on his own.

There was an explosion behind them as one of the pilots of the crafts behind slammed into a shorter rock pillar.

"That sucks." Naruto didn't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily, but it looked as though the pilot ejected into the water in time.

They landed on the beach ahead of the military, and Naruto shouted for Suigetsu to give him their blasters so it would look as if they'd had no other choice. He had Juugo put on the pair of handcuffs he'd been wearing.

"Oh what, and I don't need handcuffs? You think I'd be that easy to take? With just a blaster to my head?"

Naruto nudged Suigetsu's temple with the end of the blaster, and the other man narrowed his eyes. "Just shut up and do as I say, or I will shoot you if I have to. Sasuke's my priority."

"Tch. Don't get your panties in a twist. Just because he's your boyfriend."

Naruto rolled his eyes and pulled the gun to his side. Behind them, the military cruiser boat had landed on the beach. Several men in uniform got out, their guns at the ready. One approached the side of the craft. Naruto pushed the lever that retracted the top. The sun was out, shining in his eyes. He shielded it away with his hand and smiled at the man approaching.

"What seems to be the problem, officer?" he asked.

The military officer's answer was to hit Naruto in the side of the face with the butt of his gun. Naruto's head had snapped to the side, and his hand went up to touch his cheek.

"Aren't you supposed to read me my rights as a citizen before you start assaulting me?"

For that, he received another hit to the face that left his nose broken.

"Goddammit, alright already."

The officer opened the side door and yanked Naruto out, throwing him on the ground and removing him of the weapons. He felt the end of the gun at the back of his head. Another officer approached.

"He's listed on the database as a wanted criminal."

"What level?" the man with the gun asked.

"Black."

Naruto wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but the one officer pulled his gun away.

"Who are you?" he asked of Juugo and Suigetsu.

Naruto glanced at Suigetsu, who looked as if he might've already shit his pants.

"Those are the losers whose hovercraft I stole to get here. They're nobodies," said Naruto. The second officer approached him and kicked him in the stomach, making him curl in on himself.

"You're not too quick, are ya boy?" he said as Naruto coughed on the ground. He peered inside the craft and saw both men were unarmed, Juugo handcuffed in the back. "I don't recognize 'em from any recent wanted photos, but it couldn't hurt to run 'em through at the base."

"What about this one though?" the first officer asked. "He's level black."

"Then you know where to take 'em."

The first officer grabbed Naruto by the arm and yanked him onto his feet. He slapped on a pair of handcuffs and kicked him from behind, making Naruto stumble forward. He spit out blood on the rocks as he was escorted onto a hover bike. More military had come out of the base after all the commotion. Naruto chanced one last look behind his shoulder at Juugo and Suigetsu. He was fairly sure those guys'd be okay. They were professionals, right? So they could lie their way out of any situation, he was sure. And it was pretty clear that only an idiot would go along with what Naruto had just done.

As soon as Naruto was put on the bike, they blindfolded him. He could tell, though, once the air changed from having a sweet, salty smell to a pungent must, they'd gone underground.

The officer must have noticed it in the mirror. "What are you so happy about? Do you have any idea who's down here and what they're gonna do to you? Once they're through with you, your existence will be erased."

"I'm flattered to have so much of their attention already, really. I didn't know anyone cared."

The pilot shook his head. "You have some mouth on you, boy. A guy like you isn't gonna last long in the underground prison. If I were you, I'd mind your ass."

"Who says that's not what I came here for, eh?" Naruto said, unable to help smiling still. "A guy's gotta get his kicks somehow."

"Yep. Guys down there are gonna love you, boy."

* * *

><p>There was no ceremony as Naruto was literally thrown into a holding cell. There were no photos or fingerprints or good copbad cop scenarios. It was just him and a dark cell. His ass would remain intact. It woulda been an opportunity to reflect on life and the circumstances that led up to this moment, if that was the type of person he was. At least they'd removed the handcuffs. Unfortunately, they'd stripped him of his clothes and patted him down for weapons - most of which he'd left with Karin_except_for this other fantastic gadget he'd come up with years ago. Naruto stuck his finger into his mouth and toyed with one of his back molars until the top of it unlatched and he was able to pull out a tiny data chip. When he pressed on it, a hologram showed his location in the underground holdings, and the map expanded one room after the other. He wasn't far from the Enforcers central quarters, but he was still a level above the deck where that should be. Oh man, he really wished he'd put some sort of tracking device on Sasuke or something.

However, Naruto didn't have to wait long before the heavy slab of a door drew open, and a dark figure stood in the doorway, outlined by the light of the corridor.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the man said as he entered the cell and stood in front of the cell. He had long, dark hair pulled into a ponytail, the looser pieces were swept to the side of his face, which - apart from two lines under his eyes - was a mirror image of Sasuke.

Itachi smiled solemnly. "I see you recognize me."

"Where's Sasuke?"

"He's still alive, but barely."

Naruto got to his feet and went to the front of the cell. He gripped the bars, but doing so sent a shock through him that forced him to take several steps back.

"I'm sorry about that. I suppose I could've warned you."

Naruto's grin was feral. "Don't worry about it. I should've seen it coming."

"I suppose by now you've ascertained that we were expecting you both. In fact, I'm sure it's apparent to you that the path that led you here has been a plan of ours for a long time."

Naruto lost his grin, narrowing his eyes instead as he stepped closer to the bars. "Are you the one who murdered my crew mates and assassinated those politicians?"

In an instant, Itachi was in front of the bars, his fingers squeezing tightly around Naruto's throat, depriving him of air as he was lifted off the ground.

"I'm not here to answer _your_questions. You will answer mine." He dropped Naruto onto the floor. Naruto's knees went out from under him as he collapsed, rubbing the sides of his neck.

"Gonna be hard to do that if you crush my throat."

"I know who you are," Itachi stated. "I know where you come from, your family." He smirked. "I know _what _you are."

Naruto glared, but there was no real malice in the way Itachi spoke. He wasn't exactly what he'd imagined. In fact, he seemed the utter opposite of Sasuke: calm, focused, patient, resigned even.

"What is it you want?" Naruto asked again.

Itachi walked to the other side of the room and then back. "What are you to Sasuke?"

"Huh?"

"Are you his lover?"

"What? _No_! What the hell kind of question is that? He's a friend! An important one at that!"

"Worth risking your life for?"

Naruto growled. "What the hell is the point of these questions? If you were gonna kill me, you would've by now, so I'm gonna ask again, and I want a straight answer! Where's Sasuke?"

"Exactly two decks below this cell."

Naruto stared at him. "Uh. That was easy."

Itachi smiled faintly. "He's not ready yet."

"Not ready for what?"

"I've gone so far as to leave a message with him to keep out of the Enforcers' business."

"That's a bit extreme isn't it? Couldn't you have just sent an electronic message?"

Itachi approached and stuck his arm through the bars. "Grab my hand."

Naruto took a step back instead. "What for?"

"It only works if you make tactile contact, am I wrong?"

He swallowed heavily. "H-how do you know about that?"

"If you want to save Sasuke, you have to hurry. I can't promise others will have Sasuke's best interests at heart. This is all I can do."

"I - I can't." Naruto wrapped his arms around himself.

Itachi gave him a look of disappointment. "Perhaps you're not who I thought you were. You say you want to help Sasuke, but you're not willing to make this sacrifice of revealing the truth of what you are."

Naruto's temper flared. He moved forward quickly, grabbing hold of Itachi's hand at a speed so fast that the other man barely had time to raise an eyebrow.

"Satisfied?" Naruto asked, not recognizing his own voice.

Itachi studied him a while, eventually giving a small nod of approval. "Two decks down. You have 10 minutes before the videofeed and security alerts come back on. If you don't find him by then, you will be tracked and killed. There are people looking for you, but that time hasn't come yet."

Naruto didn't understand. Itachi let go of his hand. He went to touch the bar, but this time, there was no shock.

"I will see you again, Naruto. In the near future."

Itachi departed, his dark cloak flowing about him in an ethereal way. The door was left open. Time was ticking. Naruto looked down at his hands that weren't his own and gripped the bars, trying to pull them apart with all his strength. They squeaked and groaned as they started to bend, and the fleeting thought went through his head that he'd never met anyone as frightening as Itachi. He didn't have to boast about his strength, because he was the real deal. Why he was helping him, he had no idea, but there wasn't much other choice. The bars allowed a wide enough space for him to slip through. At the door, he peered outside, but the corridor was completely empty. Taking the lift would've been far too obvious. Naruto knew there was a maintenance shoot at the end of this corridor. He hurried to it, detaching the grate. Head first, he dived, nearly slamming his face into the grate at the end, but he put his arms out in front of him. The grate gave way and flew off its hinges, where it clattered on the metal floor.

"Shit," he muttered as he climbed his way out of the opening. He was hit by the smell of sewage and mildew. He pressed the chip again, searching the map to figure out which cell had been directly under his by two decks. All the doors to the cells were made of thick titanium. He passed several before he found the one in which Sasuke should be located.

He didn't have to override the panel. It registered his fingerprints and granted access. As the door opened, light flooded the cell at a slant. He saw Sasuke in the cell, lying on his back, shuddering. As Naruto approached him, he saw that Sasuke's eyes were open but didn't appear to see him.

"Sasuke," he whispered. "We need to get out of here."

Suddenly, Sasuke blinked, his eyes sliding slowly to the side, looking at Naruto with such a pure terror that his own breath hitched.

"No, no, no, no, no," Sasuke repeated as he looked at him and scrambled into the corner.

"What is goin' on with you?" Naruto hissed. "Oh no. It's me, asshole. It's Naruto! I swear! It's me, okay? Don't freak out on me yet, we have about 6 minutes to get you out before - "

Again, Sasuke went into a repetition of refusals while covering his ears.

"Ah fuck this. Damn you and your crazy shit." Naruto pried open the bars and went inside, moving to help Sasuke up.

"Stay away from me!" Sasuke yelled. "Stay away, you murdering bastard! You killed them!"

Naruto paused. This was not the Sasuke he knew. Had they tortured him? Had they administered psychosomatic drugs? There wasn't time for this. Naruto scooped up the other man and threw him over his shoulder. Sasuke went rather limp on him, only punching him once in the back, but then he began to brokenly sob against him.

"My legs," he said into Naruto's ear. "They're gone."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked irritably. "Your legs are right there."

Time was running out. He decided the lifts were his best option. He rode it up for 10 decks. Sasuke had remained silent. Naruto was sure he'd passed out. From there, he walked calmly through the corridor to an emergency lift that would take him to the main deck of the station. The best way to get out of this place was to try and pass through a populous part and exit with the rest of the crowds. He did keep his eye open for Suigetsu and Juugo, but by now, they'd probably been released and were back at the ship, but he still had to get there somehow.

As the lift doors slid apart, a surprised janitor pointed a finger at him.

"I'm so sorry about this." Naruto pulled him into the lift by the hand and wrapped his arm around his neck, squeezing until the older man fell unconscious onto the floor.

Naruto stole the janitor's cart. He opened the top of it and manhandled Sasuke into it with the rest of the garbage. When the lift opened again, this time on the main floor, he casually started pushing the cart through the masses. No one noticed him and for good reason. Who would've recognized him like this?

He heard Sasuke groan from inside the rubbish cart and hit the top of it to silence him. A few people gave him odd looks, but he ignored them. He felt himself growing weaker though. It became harder to push the cart, and his vision was getting extremely blurry. When he bumped into someone with the cart, he lost his footing and slipped to his knees.

"Hey, watch where you're goin', old man!"

Naruto looked up at hearing the familiar voice. "Suigetsu," he said, barely able to grin.

"Huh? How do you know who I am?"

Juugo appeared from behind. "It's you," he said to Naruto.

"What are you talkin' about? Who is this guy?" Suigetsu looked utterly confused.

Naruto was losing the strength even to speak. Doing this drained too much of his energy. He felt strong arms lift him up. A voice spoke near his ear. "Is he safe?"

Naruto nodded and put his hand on top of the cart. Suigetsu gave him an odd look after that and opened it, his eyes going wide when he saw Sasuke in there. Quickly, he closed it.

"You're a shapeshifter, eh?" Suigetsu laughed at him. "You fuckin' sneaky alien bastard."

That was the last Naruto heard of anything before blacking out.

* * *

><p>When Naruto woke next, he was in a very white, sterile room. He tried to sit up, but found there were wires attached to him, monitors blinking his vitals, and holy shit did he have a headache the size of a super massive blackhole.<p>

"Fuck me," he said, holding his head. One by one, he detached the wires and patches and threw his legs over the side of the sick bed.

On the other end of the room, Sasuke was on another bed. Naruto walked over to him and stood by his side. The man's brow was furrowed, but he seemed to be at peace, at least more so than the last time he'd seen him.

"I can feel you staring at me, you know," Sasuke spoke, his voice raw and rough. He opened his eyes.

"Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Left."

"Just like that?"

"They were being monitored. They dropped us off here, although not before weaseling money out of me for their troubles. Apparently you owed them."

"Er, oh yeah." Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "Sort of forgot about that."

Sasuke started to sit. "I'll just put it on your tab."

Naruto pushed him back down, his hand on Sasuke's chest. Sasuke looked down at the hand, and Naruto thought he saw disgust there. He'd seen it before, so he immediately drew his hand away as if burned.

"Sorry," he said.

"For what?" Sasuke slid his way off the bed, his hand on the rail for balance. He still looked very weak and pale.

"That I didn't tell you. About me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sasuke said. He opened a nearby locker and removed his belongings. He put on a jacket and fastened a blaster belt around his waist.

He grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and forced him to turn around. "Don't bullshit me. I want to talk about this."

"Well, I don't." Sasuke's eyes were narrowed with such abhorrence that Naruto was at a loss for how to explain himself. "So what if you couldn't trust me enough with your secret? I don't blame you."

"It wasn't like that." Naruto bit his lip.

Sasuke crossed his arms. "Then what was it like?"

Naruto opened his mouth, but he couldn't think of a goddam thing to say because right now he felt like an utter waste of space for being such a hypocrite and a liar.

"I fucked up, okay. I had my reasons for keeping it a secret, just like you kept yours about your brother."

"My brother is none of your business."

Naruto blew out a large breath. "How are your legs?" he said, grinning and trying for a change in topic, however terrible.

"What?"

"When I got you out of that cell, you said you had no legs. I was just wondering how they were, seeing as you're using them to stand."

Sasuke shoved by him. "Fuck off."

Naruto followed after him, keeping at his side. "I'm kidding. But c'mon, that was pretty weird. Even for you."

Sasuke stopped, grabbed Naruto by the shoulders, and shoved him against the wall. "You have no idea how fucked up my brother is! Do you know what he showed me besides a montage of one of the worst days of my life? I got to watch my legs being sliced off right in front of my eyes. I could feel the saw cutting through skin, muscle, bone. That's the sort of power he has, which is why he shouldn't be alive!"

"But he is," Naruto hissed, "And I saw him. And he was the one who told me where you were. Without him, we wouldn't be alive right now."

Sasuke's grip on him loosened, and he swayed a bit. Naruto caught him in his arms.

"Hey. You're burning up."

"I'm fine. Just get your goddam hands off of me."

"Oh what, because I'm an alien, I'm not good enough to touch you now?"

Sasuke searched his face. "Like I fucking care about shit like that! More like you're a complete and utter moron who's going to be the death of me sooner or later."

"Oh, well," Naruto smiled. "In that case, you have a point. If it makes you feel better though. I'm actually a hybrid."

"You're a half?"

"Racist much? Yeah. My mom was alien. Dad was human. There's a long backstory to it, but no point in going into it now when I could just show you instead."

"Show me?"

"First though. There's something I wanna do."

"What's that?"

Naruto inhaled deeply and then cupped Sasuke's face, the other man's mouth parting in surprise and suspicion.

"You have such a pretty face, you know that?" Naruto ran his thumb across Sasuke's cheek.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto dropped his hands and wrapped his arms around Sasuke. He squeezed.

"W-what is this?" asked Sasuke, trying to get out of the embrace, but Naruto kept him there.

"It's called a hug." Naruto rested his chin on Sasuke's shoulder. "I was worried."

Sasuke stopped resisting.

"I'm glad you're alive," Naruto whispered, shutting his eyes. "What you did was really stupid, y'know. I could've helped you had you just asked." He squeezed Sasuke one more time.

Almost awkwardly, Sasuke reached around and patted Naruto's back.

Naruto lifted his head and sniffed. "You stink."

"Wonderful. Thank you."

"Hm." Naruto looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Sasuke met his gaze. Naruto grinned, and in the lightest brush of lips to skin, kissed Sasuke's cheek.

This seemed to stun Sasuke. He did not move, he did not speak, he did not breathe.

"Prude," said Naruto and threw his arm around Sasuke's shoulders. "So shall we head back to the ship?"

"Who says you're allowed on board?"

"Just a feelin'. Besides, you're comin' with me."

"And where exactly will you be taking us?"

"My planet, of course! I think there will be acquaintances of mine who can offer us some sage advice on what to do next."

Sasuke made a face as they walked down the corridor.

"C'mon. It'll be fun." Naruto waggled his eyebrows. "On the way there we can bond some more. Just like old times!"

"Naruto. We've only been apart for less than a day."

"Oh but it felt like an eternity!" Naruto grinned. Sasuke pushed his arm away.

"Stop touching me so damn familiarly," he growled.

Naruto put his arm right back around him. "We are definitely gonna have to work on your touchophobia, too. It feels good to be touched." His lips were near Sasuke's ear. "Do you want me to prove it to you?"

Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's face and pushed him away, smirking. "Shut up, moron."

Naruto's laughter echoed in the hall. "You know what's hilarious? Your brother asked if I was your lover. Can you believe that?"

"Hm."

Naruto glanced over at him. "I said isn't that hilarious?"

"My brother has an absurd sense of humor. That much is clear."

"I dunno. He seemed alright."

Sasuke sent him a glare. "Besides that whole murdering and torturing thing, yeah, he's a great guy."

They checked out of the medical unit. Everything was done very privately and under the table so there would be no traces of them having been there. They hired a pilot to take them near to the garage where the Accipiter was docked. They walked the rest of the way, not saying much. The day was still bright, and the weather absolutely brilliant. It would've been hard to have guessed that earlier they'd been imprisoned in an Enforcer's base and a few minutes away from death. Now it was like it hadn't happened. Maybe that was the shock, or maybe it was Naruto's excitement in being able to go home again.

As they boarded the Accipiter and got her ready to launch, Naruto breathed in the scent that belonged solely to this great ship.

"Please don't sniff my ship while making a face like that."

Naruto laughed at the way Sasuke looked so genuinely distressed.

"If you're not gonna put out, I gotta get my satisfaction somehow. Am I right?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, heading for the cockpit. Naruto jogged up behind him.

"You'll need me to set the course, you know."

"I'm aware," grunted Sasuke.

"You missed me, didn't you?"

"About as much as I miss being tortured by my own brother in a cell that smells like waste."

"I guess it could be worse. At least they didn't flash freeze you in a slab of carbon."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Then I wouldn't have to listen to your constant chatter."

"Yeah, but you woulda been a lot heavier to carry out of the holding cell."

Sasuke pushed open the hatch before looking down at him. "You're waiting for a thank you for saving my life, aren't you?"

Naruto batted his eyelashes. "Me? Of course not."

"Good," he said and proceeded to climb his way out of the hatch, presenting Naruto with a view of his ass in the process. "Because you'd be waiting a hell of a long time before I do."

"Figures." Naruto waited his turn to climb out and put the hatch back down. As they entered the pit, he took the co-pilot's seat and punched in the coordinates for his planet while Sasuke watched.

"You live in the Sophia system?"

"Yep. Know much about it?"

"Only rumors. That's rather far away."

"Guess we better get on our way then, eh?"

Sasuke got in the pilot's seat, strapping himself in and preparing the ship for launch. Naruto watched him at work. Sasuke's movements were graceful as he flipped all the switches and checked the sensors. He engaged the cloaking shield.

"I see you put my cloaking chip to good use." Naruto had one eyebrow raised.

Sasuke shrugged. "Didn't you leave it for me as a going away present?"

"I did."

"Too bad you didn't go away."

"Ha ha," he said dryly. "Now shut up and fly this bitch before I try to get my hands on her."

"Tch. In your dreams, Uzumaki. And by dreams I mean absolutely no fantasizing about my ship ever."

Naruto chuckled. "Yes, sir. Captain, sir." He saluted.


End file.
